Books: Prepping for Love

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Sittenfeld's relationship with chick lit has never been quite comfortable--but in a way, chick lit has never been totally comfortable with itself. As a genre it sets itself the task of chronicling the (literarily underserved) lives of contemporary single women--but then, all too often, it suffers a failure of nerve and settles for regurgitating exactly the clichés about boys and shopping and cattiness that it should be rectifying. "I almost feel like the premises of plenty of chick-lit books are ones that I would love to read!" Sittenfeld says, exasperated. "It's almost like they're not seen as worthy of intelligent treatment."

Funnily enough, the story of Sittenfeld as an author is exactly the opposite of the stories she tells in her books: she's the misfit novelist who has been spontaneously embraced by the reading world. Which makes you wonder what kinds of books will come out of all the success and affirmation. Will she still channel our collective awkwardness and alienation? "I was kind of joking with my editor," she recalls, "saying, you know, 'God save me if I ever write another scene where a young woman is maybe about to kiss a young man, but then she wonders if he really could find her attractive.' I feel a little like, Curtis, please never do that again. You've been as thorough as you possibly could."