Yes, But Was She Ever a Cornflake Girl?

Jennifer Weiner celebrates the publication of her third novel, Little Earthquakes, today, and the media blitz has already begun. She's told Literary Mama about the difficulties of writing for new mothers; "a baby definitely makes it harder, because at this point, she's always going to be the most interesting thing in the room, more fascinating by a long shot than whatever imaginary world I've got going on the computer." And she's spoken to Newsday how her original plans for a followup to Good in Bed and In Her Shoes were derailed by motherhood.

All this hoopla may have rubbed Janet Maslin the wrong way, as she snarls at the book's "three characters who are drawn together by the prospect of new motherhood and fascinated by every last aspect of childbirth." Once, she adds, Weiner's prose was "candy-colored and charming," but now it's just "more formulaic." Fortunately, the Internet lets authors have the last word these days, and Weiner snaps back on her blog:

[T]hat’s the typical reflexive, simplistic, sexist take on chick-lit for you: produced by women writers who aren’t smart or creative enough to see past their own eyelashes and create vivid imaginary worlds; consumed by women readers too stupid or silly or self-involved to even want to read about something that hasn’t already, or might someday, happen to them.