Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture

Roach (Stripping, Sex, and Popular Culture) looks at romance as “the prime cultural narrative of the modern Western world,” but quickly narrows her focus to a study of romance fiction, in part to explain her own fascination with the genre. The first third of the book establishes Roach as a “critical engagée” with the questions raised by these books, and later chapters focus on her alternate career as published romance author Catherine LaRoche (Knight of Love)—an experiment in hands-on research that turned out to be a “bucket of fun.” The chapters that address the themes of romance fiction are light on analysis of contemporary books but heavy on defending the genre against claims that it lacks realism and diversity. Roach explores the central conundrums of the romance novel as both “deep truth and wish-fulfilling illusion,” resolving “the problem of female desire in a patriarchal world” by imagining conclusions “where women are whole, safe, loved, sexually fulfilled, respected, in control of their choices, and happy.” Her generous affection for the genre takes the teeth out of her hard critical questions, but Roach’s attempt to do emotional justice to the genre should satisfy academics and fans alike. [em](Apr.) [/em]