Women’s fiction is such an interesting category. I know we’ve discussed it on the Bulletin Board quite a bit, are its parameters defined by the ending (not necessarily happy), or by the age of the main character (not twenty and nubile), by the range of characters (lots), by generations (often three), by?.

Here’s my definition: I think women’s fiction roughly defines itself from romance in one simple way: flawed heroines. As a practitioner of romance, and one who loves it dearly, I read very few romances in which the heroine is truly flawed. Yes, there are some who are tstl (too stupid to live, for non-techies), but they generally balance that flaw with their gorgeous locks and utterly cheerful demeanors. And there are some who have concealed their babies in an utterly inadvisable way, but they almost always have some sort of youthful foolishness type of reason for it.

In other words, romance heroines may be silly, but they employ the little wits they have in a remarkably intelligent way (I’m thinking of Garwood’s early heroines, in case anyone’s wondering). The majority of romance heroines are not at all silly, being snappy, fun, intelligent and assertive. What’s more, they’re mostly gorgeous and often very rich.

In women’s fiction, on the other hand, I’m finding a lot of romance, but the heroines are not “romance heroines.” Let’s take Karen White’s newest book as an example. Now I happen to adore Karen’s books. I’ve been reading them from the first few she wrote, there’s a glorious tearjerker in the early group that made me cry happily for hours. Her new novel is as great as the rest: primarily because the heroine of Learning to Breathe is flawed. I mean: Brenna is really flawed.

Now what I do not mean is that she’s a husband-beater or a kleptomaniac. She’s entirely likable. But she’s made some serious mistakes in her life, and her life is a complicated web that has grown from things she’s done and not done. It’s hard to explain without wrecking the plot, but here’s a snippet from the first chapter: the boy she adored in high school returns to town to help his father tie up the bits of his life. When he walks into her sister’s store, she happens to be sitting there covered with cold cream (bummer!), but there he is, grown to a man. And she’s about to get engaged to someone else. The rest of the novel spreads from that situation. In a romance, it would be a question of unraveling the plot threads that kept them apart and that’s true here as well. But the really important reasons for that situation lie in Brenna and her character.

Karen White is going to join us in the book club on the Bulletin Board this month, so please run out and get Learning to Breathe. It’s a lovely, complicated book about sisters, old lovers, friends, letters and regret. I can’t explain why without wrecking everything but this is one of the rare books in which the title really makes sense.

-Eloisa