Chic lit that was selling like hot cakes till now has some serious competition from the not-so-fairer sex. The latest to hit the bookshelves is Dude Lit as the dudes seem to be getting fast into the Bridget Jones’ Diary mode, dishing out guy diaries with all the trappings of romance, marriage and light adventure.
Dude Lit, with male protagonists struggling with issues like dating, marriage and same sex relationships, is set to rule the shelves. Concurs BB Mukherjee of Srishthi Publishers, “It all started with Chetan Bhagat’s success. He opened up new vistas and today there is a huge market for young male authors.”
The stores are flaunting books like Chetan Bhagat’s One Night At A Call Centre and Five Point Some One or Tushar Raheja’s Anything For You Ma’m — an IITian’s tryst with romance, or the recent one like Tuhin A Sinha’s That Thing Called Love. In the pipeline are Three Makes A Crowd by Kaushik Sircar, about three friends in a military college and Belong by Fazel, describing a poor boy’s triumphs. There are more but publishers are not revealing their plans.
While Dude Lit seems to be the current flavour, publishers are not sure if the fad will last long. Feels PM Sukumar of Harper Collins, “These books are for the mass market and appeal to a certain category of readers. They may not be taken as serious literary material.” But Kapish Mehra of Rupa and Co counters, “These books are targeted at the youth in a language that they best understand; it would be unfair to compare these writers with some one like Anita Desai.” Point taken, dude!
{{/usCountry}}While Dude Lit seems to be the current flavour, publishers are not sure if the fad will last long. Feels PM Sukumar of Harper Collins, “These books are for the mass market and appeal to a certain category of readers. They may not be taken as serious literary material.” But Kapish Mehra of Rupa and Co counters, “These books are targeted at the youth in a language that they best understand; it would be unfair to compare these writers with some one like Anita Desai.” Point taken, dude!
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