Tuesday, 31st December 2002, 11:43am
An opinion by: Rascal

 

Slave to Fashion by Rebecca Campbell

I really enjoyed Backpack and Bridget Jones, both the book and the movie. "Slave to Fashion" should have been as fun, with the important benefit of also being about fashion. "Yipee, book candy!" was what I was thinking when I plunked down my eighteen dollars to buy the thing. And it is, I did read it to the end, I didn't throw it away in disgust, but here's what bugged me:

Almost gets characters, but skirts around the edges
The character of Penny, the fashion designer and Katie Castle's boss, wants to be outrageous, difficult and ultimately loveable - but its all so distant that we never get to really know her. Katie Castle, our heroine, is supposed to be clever, sharp-tonged, a bit of a glory-hound, and ultimately loveable - but actually she is most interesting-bitchy inside her own head. For all she actually says, she seems pretty bland to me.

Too much self-conscious jabbering to the reader
Campbell unecessarily interupts her narrative flow with comments such as "...Sorry if all that was a bit drab and technical..." or "Sorry, I'm raving.." which I guess is supposed to be funny but is just annoying, especially when she isn't being in the least bit drab and technical. As for raving...well, maybe badly expressing a vague and underdeveloped idea would have been a better way to put it, and for that I blame Campbell, not her character.

I'm going to give you a fuller example of this writing tic, and to be super-fair I am putting in what I believe to be the best of the lot:

"I was facing the wrong way, of course. Penny always liked to see where she was going. But I didn't really mind. I've always thought - and pay attention here, because this is about the only profound thought I've ever had - that life is like facing the wrong way on the train. Because, you see, the present, the bit of countryside that's exactly equal to where you are, is over before you know its there, and then all you have is the dwindling afterward of it. And though you can guess what sorts of things are going to come rushing over your shoulder, because you can see roughly what sort of terrain you're in, there's always the chance of something really unexpected or scary, like a tunnel, or a field with horses, or Leeds.

Oh, I always thought it would look better when I wrote it down. Perhaps I just can't do profound."

A perfectly nice funny papragraph and then she says that. Pissed me off no end. As far as supporting cast goes, I think Campbell's characterization talents were definitely up to Ludo, Katie's finacé, Hugh, Penny's husband, Milo, the PR queen and the other players who step on and off stage. Rebecca Campbell does have a wit in describing types. -RBR

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