MaiaMia_53
Royal Highness
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2017
- Messages
- 1,917
- City
- Midwest
- Country
- United States
For me, the book is rather poorly written, especially the first two chapters. It's as if they didn't have an editor. I'm happy for Omid Scobie that the book is a best seller, but it is selling purely because of the worldwide interest in the Sussexes and in the ongoing British royal family dramas. Omid is a decent writer, so maybe some of the chapters which read better had more input from him. It's hard to tell.
Probably, once the Sussexes stepped away from royal duties, the publishers got nervous about the authors taking their time writing the book. I heard that Carolyn Durand had approached Omid in 2018 sometime after the royal wedding. She knew that Omid has insider Sussex sources, while she has some insider palace sources and she's a bit more conservative. So together, they made a good combination to write a book about the newly minted Sussexes. Initially, it was expected to be a general biography documenting the Sussexes' love story and their life together as senior royals. Clearly, the focus changed as unexpected developments began to occur.
In the beginning, the authors apparently weren't trying to rush things since they'd been doing research and working on the book for nearly two years. That obviously all changed after the Sussexit departure from the royal firm in January. Most likely, the publishers put pressure on Durand and Omid to simply give them what they had. Seemingly the publishers were worried about marketing the book long term amidst the uncertainties of the Sussexes' situation, especially when the pandemic also hit. As a result, in my view, the opening chapters seem thrown together with no narrative through line. Passages begin with one thought and then go off on tangents with run-on sentences. I seriously was getting whiplash trying read those first chapters. The third and fourth chapters read a bit better because the narrative finally begins to focus on M&H's actual love story (their first dates and courtship, etc), providing readers with previously unrevealed intimate details.
Another problem I have with the book is the way the roll-out happened with media excerpts which diluted any possible enjoyment of reading the book itself. I didn't read any of the excerpts, but there was no way I could avoid hearing reported details, since I follow news about the Sussexes online.
In my opinion, the publishers should have been more patient and allowed the writers more time to do a better job. I didn't have any expectations that the book was going to be anything more than the usual popular biography. But it is unfortunately rather disjointed and poorly written overall. They should have focused more exclusively on the Meghan and Harry love story and on the trajectory of their lives and personalities. I could have done without the insistence on trying to make excuses for different individuals and entities surrounding the whole gossipy tabloid drama. We aren't getting the truth about much of that anyway. And attempting to tell different versions from different palace sources while framing excuses, just doesn't work for me. In the long run, who Harry and Meghan are as individuals and as a couple I feel is far more interesting, thought-provoking and substantive.
But yeah, these type of popular biographies are usually heavy on the salacious gossip details, which are of the moment, conflicting and unresolved, exhausting, and ultimately provide less insight into the larger themes of what matters in the lives of the famous individual or couple who are being written about. As a writer, if you feel the need to bend over backward telling different versions of this side and that side without being able to tell the actual truth, then I think it's best to focus on substantive details and weightier themes that if well-researched and well-crafted can be more engaging, revealing and entertaining.
Probably, once the Sussexes stepped away from royal duties, the publishers got nervous about the authors taking their time writing the book. I heard that Carolyn Durand had approached Omid in 2018 sometime after the royal wedding. She knew that Omid has insider Sussex sources, while she has some insider palace sources and she's a bit more conservative. So together, they made a good combination to write a book about the newly minted Sussexes. Initially, it was expected to be a general biography documenting the Sussexes' love story and their life together as senior royals. Clearly, the focus changed as unexpected developments began to occur.
In the beginning, the authors apparently weren't trying to rush things since they'd been doing research and working on the book for nearly two years. That obviously all changed after the Sussexit departure from the royal firm in January. Most likely, the publishers put pressure on Durand and Omid to simply give them what they had. Seemingly the publishers were worried about marketing the book long term amidst the uncertainties of the Sussexes' situation, especially when the pandemic also hit. As a result, in my view, the opening chapters seem thrown together with no narrative through line. Passages begin with one thought and then go off on tangents with run-on sentences. I seriously was getting whiplash trying read those first chapters. The third and fourth chapters read a bit better because the narrative finally begins to focus on M&H's actual love story (their first dates and courtship, etc), providing readers with previously unrevealed intimate details.
Another problem I have with the book is the way the roll-out happened with media excerpts which diluted any possible enjoyment of reading the book itself. I didn't read any of the excerpts, but there was no way I could avoid hearing reported details, since I follow news about the Sussexes online.
In my opinion, the publishers should have been more patient and allowed the writers more time to do a better job. I didn't have any expectations that the book was going to be anything more than the usual popular biography. But it is unfortunately rather disjointed and poorly written overall. They should have focused more exclusively on the Meghan and Harry love story and on the trajectory of their lives and personalities. I could have done without the insistence on trying to make excuses for different individuals and entities surrounding the whole gossipy tabloid drama. We aren't getting the truth about much of that anyway. And attempting to tell different versions from different palace sources while framing excuses, just doesn't work for me. In the long run, who Harry and Meghan are as individuals and as a couple I feel is far more interesting, thought-provoking and substantive.
But yeah, these type of popular biographies are usually heavy on the salacious gossip details, which are of the moment, conflicting and unresolved, exhausting, and ultimately provide less insight into the larger themes of what matters in the lives of the famous individual or couple who are being written about. As a writer, if you feel the need to bend over backward telling different versions of this side and that side without being able to tell the actual truth, then I think it's best to focus on substantive details and weightier themes that if well-researched and well-crafted can be more engaging, revealing and entertaining.
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