A popular misconception
Some romance novels have a very tough edge,

writes Graeme Blundell September 12, 2009
Article from: The Australian

ROMANCE fiction is routinely derided, criticised, shamed. Germaine Greer said romance novels placed the reader in bondage: they were, she said, "the opiate of the supermenial"."The common reactions are always jokey comments about Barbara Cartland, or a pained expression followed by a swift change of subject, or simply a derisive laugh," writer Bronwyn Parry says. "Then there are the snarky comments about bodice rippers, female porn and formulas. Whenever someone makes one of those comments, you can be fairly sure that they've probably never read a romance novel." Parry, whose novels blend the genres of romance and suspense, quotes Greer dryly, secure in the knowledge that the genre appeals to educated and successful women these days. "'There was a great deal of pressure on early 70s feminists to distance themselves from anything that was feminine," she says. "They looked at the early chapters of romance novels, rarely read the entire book, and saw women in positions of less power than stronger male heroes, then stated these books had to be bad."

In fact Parry was reading these same novels as a teenager and, unlike her older sisters, found the novels highly subversive. "In these books women actually held their own eventually, and were found to be very, very strong people; these novels, in fact, posed an alternative model of womanhood, one that emphasised independence, honesty and self-sufficiency." She may joke about outdated attitudes, but the experience of being criticised clearly annoys her.

Romance novels, after all, sell millions, easily the biggest international literary category. Poised to join them is Parry's second novel Dark Country, which was released this month. Her previous novel, As Darkness Falls, was a successful debut and recently reissued.

"The emotion of a romance, the intensity of a thriller plot and the drama of the Australian landscape," is the way she sums up her work. Her eclectic background includes an honours degree in social history and English and an exhausting range of work experiences. She has been a youth worker, dance teacher, organisational development manager, educational designer, and now occasional academic.

Keenly interested in story-telling and readership in popular fiction, she is doing a part-time PhD, researching online communities of romance readers and writers and their perspectives on the genre. "It's called romance suspense in the US, whereas in the UK the same book is marketed as crime.

In fact, the UK cover for As Darkness Falls makes it look like haunting suspense," Parry says. She says romance books are not, as critics suggest, about marriage at all costs, or the subjugation of a woman to a man in a relationship based on power.

The full story at The Australian online.

Dark Country is published by Hachette Australia.