5 Reasons Why I Loved The Fiction Class

First a little background. The Fiction Class by Susan Breen is about Arabella Hicks, a single, 38-year-old writer who has been working on the same book for seven years. Every week Arabella teaches a beginning fiction class. Afterwards, she travels out to visit her difficult mother at her nursing home. The book is about her struggles as a writer, her relationship with her mother, her budding romance, and her students.

There's more of course, but I don't want to give it away. Instead I'll share five reasons why I loved The Fiction Class.

1. Susan Breen is inspiring. Like so many of us writer mamas, she has to schedule her writing around her work and family life. (Susan has four kids.) She's written a great book even though she has a "real life" as a mom, wife and daughter. If she can manage to find the time, surely I can.

As she says on her website:

The problem is not finding time to write. The problem is finding time to do anything else, like the laundry, or cleaning the bathroom. I decided when my kids were little that something had to give. My children would be my primary focus, but the minute they were asleep, or at school, or watching TV, I would sit down and write. The result is that we live on pizza and none of our socks match and there are sections of my kitchen that really are a biohazard.

I can relate. After coming back from a wonderful trip to San Diego, I came home and noticed that the house looks especially shabby these days. That's what happens when you let your daughter make sandwiches on the couch.

2. The Fiction Class gives you more bang for your buck. I love books like Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl that give you a wonderful story and recipes. Is it a cookbook or a novel? It's both - wow, two books in one.

In the same way The Fiction Class gives you more than a wonderful story. It gives you writing prompts. Of course the prompts fit into the story and what's being taught in Arabella's class. However, they're excellent writing exercises on their own. I love this about the book and it's another reason why I want to share it with my writer's group. Here's a sample prompt:

Make a list of your five obsessions. Now write a few paragraphs about each one.

3. The Fiction Class helps you understand why you're a writer. Arabella has an amazing internal dialog. She's always observing how people hold themselves or what they wear. In fact, she jokes about it to herself saying that she does those things because she's a writer.

Then that little light bulb of recognition goes off and you think, "Hey, I do that, too. Must be why I'm a writer!"

The book also gives you insight to the writing process, like how to make your characters come alive. As Arabella teaches her students, Susan also teaches her readers. It almost makes you want to go back to the previous chapter to see if Susan used the writer's trick Arabella taught her class.

4. The Fiction Class is real. Without giving much away - because you must read this book - I'm glad to read a book where there is an honest mother-daughter struggle, and a story about how difficult it is to take care of a terminally ill parent or spouse.

So many of the mommy and chick lit books I come across are so cliched and ridiculous. You know, the cute single gal who gets the guy of her dreams - and struggles with her weight or credit card bills. Or the unhappy SAHM who has an affair with the stay-at-home dad. Or the career woman struggling with work/life balance who turns in her high pressure career to stay home with her adorable kids and sexy husband. Yeah, right.

5. That being said, the book has a happy ending. Since The Fiction Class is down to earth, but not melodramatic, there is a bit of a fairy tale ending. Yes, the girl gets the guy and works things out with her mom. But it's not as easy as that.

Enough said, get this book!