So, I am on a book reading frenzy..and what with Michael gone to Virginia for a few days, I should be able to polish off a book a day.
I've been mostly reading memoirs...I dunno for some reason they interest me far more than fiction these days. I mean, I still adore fiction, but the true-life stories are so appealing.
And I've read some great ones. Ones that I couldn't wait to turn to the next pages to see how this tale unfolds. I've read difficult to get through ones...Like Anne Rice's Called Out of Darkness...in her defense..I've always trudged through any Rice with a lot of work...the massive amounts of description she uses sometimes makes me feel lost or sidetracked...
But regardless of the book, if I pick it up...I can't leave it unread. It's a weird quirk I have. I have to have to have to finish it.
So...after the heavy reading of Rice.. I stumbled haphazardly upon Someday My Prince Will Come True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess By Jerramy Fine. It seems light and bubblegummy...and like a quick read.
So, I pick it up.
First of all, I have to say...It was an easy read. HOWEVER, I became irratated with it quickly.
She portrays herself as a princess in a past life, which I'm sure she was trying to be funny, but at the same time, I don't doubt her half seriousness.
I, too, grew up in love with Princess Diana (I am Unashamed to admit). I, too, grew up in a smaller than small American town.
Anyone who knows me, knows I literally poured over picture books and magazine articles about her.
EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE knew about my undying devotion to the Princess.
Even my dad's English friend came back to the states bearing not only Princess Diana gifts, but also...gasp! Realio-trulio money from his trip to London. (Basically, he gave me his pocket change, but I savored it immensely...) I read Royalty Magazine, as well. I dreamed of going to England. I practiced my Princess Diana poses in the mirror...I even dared to get her hair cut. For a nine year old, it was impressive...looking back on the pictures I see that Anne's Magic Mirror gave me a semi-mullet. Yet, I sported that 'do proudly ignoring my front and center cowlick.
However, I never ever deemed myself a royal reincarnate.
I didn't stop my admiration of her even as I grew up. I even gave highschool biography reports about the late Princess.
I don't think I am unique at all in this. I don't think Ms. Fine is unique either. In fact, when I was 23, I noticed in my roommate's bedroom a framed yes FRAMED picture cut precisely from a magazine, of Diana and Charles...by the bedside table. At the time, this girl was 38.
So, there is something that resonates with a lot of American women when it comes to the British Royal Family.
I even enjoyed reading about Wallis and Edward. I just loved and relished in every moment.
Having said all of that, reading what was supposed to be a comic light read, I found myself rolling my eyes, and seeing more and more that she wasn't trying to just write her story and her quest to meet Peter Phillips, but also, she was hoping beyond hope to be the next Candace Bushnell, and/or Darren Star or Michael Patrick King...
I found it kinda of...offputting that she would refer to her family condescendingly..even if she was trying to be funny. I grew up with a dad who had a long beard, and a mom who had long or supershort hair...yet I would never ever even jokingly look down on where/how they chose to raise me.
And in turn, while I feel at liberty to make fun of where I grew up, I only do so alongside others who grew up in the same area as I do. I would never ever make the area I grew up in a laughingstock for others to look down on. That's just not my style.
And I would never, ever knock American boys...She constantly in the book talks about how backward American Boys can be. Yet, she celebrates the same drunken behaviors of the boys across the pond...
But true to my if you start it finish it book reading policy, I read it til the last page.... and was kinda happy for her to finally meet Peter Phillips...the royal boy she fell "in love with" at 6.
(Even though when I was 7, I set my sights on Prince Edward..he seemed older...more mature...)
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