Book Autopsy: The Book That has Died Five Times…

Just this past weekend, I received an email that this blog had been nominated for Best Romance Blog in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards.   So to whomever offered us the nominations, we thank you!!! It’s such an an honor and we will continue to strive to create a blog that you love to come and visit.  In the meantime, Book Blogger Appreciation week is in September — from the 14th to the 18th, and it celebrates the community that blogs about and loves books, from all angles. Be sure to visit their site for all the blog listings and details.

With the PSA and the thank yous out of the way, I’m going to honor this nomination by introducing a new type of post to this blog:  Book Autopsy. This will be posts that dissect books we’ve read, pull out the guts and figure out what’s going on from a writer’s standpoint, breaking apart the elements of a book that stands out to us in some way, good or bad.

So for the inaugural book, I’m going to focus on the one book in my library that I’ve read to death five times.  Yes, I have purchased this book more than five times because I’ve worn it out so much.  I’ve read it probably over fifty.  I’ve read pieces of it,  excerpts, little portions of it,  at least a hundred separate times as well. That book?

Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught

Under the dark, languorous eyes of Clayton Westmoreland, the Duke of Claymore, Whitney Stone grew from a saucy hoyden into a ravishingly sensual woman. Fresh from her triumphs in Paris society, she returned to England to win the heart of Paul, her childhood love…only to be bargained away by her bankrupt father to the handsome, arrogant Duke. Outraged, she defies her new lord.

But even as his smoldering passion seduces her into a gathering storm of desire, Whitney cannot, will not, relinquish her dream of perfect love. (from mcnaughtized.com)

The Plot

Now the inexplicable thing about my love for this book is that the backbone of the plot is one I’m not fond of – the Big Misunderstanding.  This plot device is based around a simple event that becomes outrageously complicated simply because the two main characters won’t TALK about it.  They won’t ask each other even one question, which could clear up the misunderstanding.  And from that lack of communication comes a domino effect of disaster.

If Clayton and Whitney just had a couple of honest conversations with each other instead of jumping to conclusions at every turn, all of their issues could have been easily resolved.  And yet, because of who Clayton and Whitney were, it actually made sense that they didn’t.  It fit them.  The misunderstandings worked well with who they were, and their reactions to each element also fit.   Clayton and Whitney are some of the most memorable, well-drawn characters I believe I’ve ever read.  Like them, love them or want to drop them off a cliff (or a combination of all three), you will never forget them.  To me, that is the hallmark of an excellent writer.  I was able to overlook an unfavored plot device because it was carried so well by the characters created.

The writing:

As an “early” writer, we’re taught the “rules” — POV, showing versus telling and a host of other elements that we are supposed to absolutely avoid.    Years ago, after I really began trying to understand the rules (because I am a firm believe that you don’t know how or where to break them until you understand them), I reread Whitney, My Love.  The writing of this book had a lot of the things we were told not to do!  I couldn’t understand how this book, my favorite, got away with so much of the writing I was told was “bad.”

And then as I finished the book and knew I loved it just as much, it helped me come to a realization.  A good book is not always the sum of perfect writing.  It’s why there isn’t a formula for writing a book that becomes someone’s favorite.  It’s a combination of all the elements from story to characters to setting that help you engage someone’s emotions.

The Characters

The main reason I loved this book – it made me feel.   And that came from connecting to the characters, 100%.

From the very beginning, I empathized with, cried with, laughed with and wanted to knock some sense into Whitney. (And believe me, there were times I really wanted to smack her upside her head.)   But she was strong willed, stubborn and determined.  What drove her was a desperate need to be loved.  Her fixation on her childhood crush, Paul was very much a fantasy born from a child’s heart that winning this man would give her the love she so desired, the love she never received from her father.  She was focused and determined not to let that get away from her.

But Whitney herself was a very, very real character – she had faults and she had strengths.  She wasn’t perfect, and it was easy to identify with her need to be loved, her need to feel wanted and to find her place in the world, and the choices –good and bad–she made while trying to get those needs met.

I was drawn to Clayton for many of the same reasons he drove me crazy. He was enigmatic, arrogant, strong-willed and beyond stubborn.  (And already you can see where these two clashed heads.)  And underneath it, even when she drove him crazy, he wanted to protect Whitney, he wanted to love her and share everything he had with her. But he lived in a world where everything was handed to him on a silver platter.  He was a duke, and in that society, no one other than royal dukes, princes and kings were higher or of more importance.   It was a part of his existence that everything he wanted he could have.

Everything except Whitney. From the moment he met Whitney, he was intrigued by her personality and her beauty but she was far from interested in him.   As was fairly common practice in those times, he arranged a marriage through her father. This he kept secret, to give them time to know each other, so he could court her and gain her favor – I thought this action of his was very telling.  Despite being able to buy anything or anyone he wanted and having “bought” Whitney, he still went through a lot of effort to meet Whitney in different circumstances, to give them time to get to know each other, to win her over first.  While he had done what was second nature to him and bought what he wanted, underneath that choice was a man who still wanted to be liked or loved for himself.

Underneath the layers of their choices, Clayton and Whitney had very similar needs.  They were similar in character, as well and so their story is about intense emotion in a world where love itself was rare.  The emotion was sometimes raw, sometimes loving and sometimes angry.  Throughout this book, they battled each other and fought against the very thing each of them wanted most.  They each did things they regretted later.  They weren’t always nice to each other.    But in the end, it’s a beautiful story of two people who manage to find love by finding a way to get past their own needs to start fulfilling each others. It’s about recognizing that pain doesn’t come from love, but that love can exist despite it.

Conclusion

The best element of this book are the characters.  They are so well-drawn that they easily pull the story along, no matter what other elements are there.

Have you read Whitney, My Love?  What are your thoughts? What did you like or dislike about it?