Take a walk, if you will, in author Jennifer Weiner's shoes. The 30-something Princeton grad and writer of bestseller "Good in Bed" (2001) is expecting her second book, "In Her Shoes" (2002) to grace the silver screen this October, starring Cameron Diaz, while promoting her third novel released last September, "Little Earth-quakes."
Take a walk in Weiner's shoes, because it took quite a walk to get where she is. Weiner discussed her books, relationships, professional success, being a Jewish woman and the struggle for empowerment in Pearson last Wednesday, sponsored by Hillel's Vitality board.
After a bad breakup with a boyfriend of three years at age 28, the young journalist took to her laptop and funneled her frustration into a book that she wrote with no real intent to publish. Weiner wanted to write a story - set to her specific vision.
"I wanted to tell a story where the girl was kind of like me, and the guy was kind of like Satan ... and I wanted to give her a happy ending," Weiner said.
Weiner explained the journey of her story, calling it a "tikkun olam," a Hebrew prayer for healing, and a catharsis. Weiner said, "For a while I believed I had superpowers and that anything that I wrote would come true," Weiner said with a laugh, referring to the parallels between her life and the life of her first book's heroine.
Her stories are "tweaked" real life, about "finding your place in the world, and then finding who you're supposed to be with as part of that," according to Weiner. Though a part of contemporary women's fiction, she attempts to give authentic details, mined from her experience.
The discussion Wednesday evening focused on the movie, her family, and her latest book ,often drawing laughter and applause from a receptive audience. Weiner openly spoke of past relationships, the perks of being famous, and a Jewish childhood in Simsbury, Connecticut.
Her first book details the life of Cannie Shapiro, a young plus-size journalist whose ex-boyfriend writes a column detailing their personal sex life in a magazine. The story ultimately concludes happily, and as a departure from many works belonging to the "chick-lit" genre, doesn't have any miraculous, life-improving weight loss.
It was a happy ending that didn't please everyone however; Weiner contacted several agents for the book, finding only one who was interested. And she was interested in an entirely different story. Weiner's first agent immediately requested that Weiner rewrite the story, asking that she make the heroine "not fat," or remove the heroine's sex scenes, and change the title to "Big Girl."
"I wanted to give my character everything I'd ever want, and I wanted her to be plus size," Weiner said, "I knew plenty of heavier women who had okay lives. The dichotomy of thin and heavy women in books didn't apply to what I saw around me."
Wary of turning her character into "Bridget Jones with a Bat Mitzvah," Weiner turned down her agent and kept looking. She said, "You look back on your life and you look back to where it all sort of pivoted."
Weiner was able to find an agent who understood her intention and didn't ask for changes, and found that she was rewarded for staying with her original character. Weiner knew that many would share and relate to her story, and ultimately wanted her writing to speak as she would speak to her friends. "Good in Bed" had foreign rights in 15 countries and became an international best-seller.
"Goodnight, Nobody," the author's latest book, marks a departure, as this book is a murder-mystery. Though Weiner terms herself a "cannibal," taking real life events and absorbing them into her fiction, admittedly, the new mother has far less fodder. "My life is 'And then I went to the playground, chapter nine'," Weiner joked.
The talk was punctuated by the writer's witticisms. Jessica Tye, a member of Hillel's Vitality board, thanked the author at the conclusion of the evening, saying, "I think you could be a stand-up comedian if you wanted to."
This humor allows Weiner to be accessible to her fans, as does her blog. She remains optimistic about optioning her work onto the screen. "Movies tell stories in a different language than books do, they have access to a whole tool box that I don't," Weiner said, "and I did manage to get my Nana in the movie."
