Realistic or shoehorned in (diversity)

[ValerieVomit]

What's your views on diversity in fiction? I know I am being quite general and it's an open question.

I was prompted to ask - I am reading a book where two divorcees look like getting together, one has two children, the boy is at school and good at cooking and has an Indian friend who it is hinted he might be more than friends with.

How realistic are diversity aspects covered in modern fiction? Some examples I have seen are like a sledgehammer to crack a nut, some don't have any characters other than white and straight. And that possibly mirrors some friendship groups I suppose.

What's your thoughts? How does an author make it look natural and relevant without looking try hard or getting it wrong? Which authors do this best?

Recommendations please.

Well my son loved cooking in his teens, is gay and had close friends at school who were not Anglo Saxon, and it wouldn't occur to me that any of those things were diversity shoehorns in the depiction of a teenage boy. Maybe it depends on what you are used to.

No I am not saying that is a bad example. Reading this though prompted me to think about how diversity is treated in mainstream fiction that is not part of a gay or LGBTQ+ specific genre or black fiction, say. Dorothy Koomson does this brilliantly and so does Mike Gayle. Conversely I read a book called the Love Square by Laura someone (will look up) that had a gender neutral character and apart from knowing they used they/them pronouns, the inclusion of that character went nowhere.

*Laura Jane Williams

Unless specifically mentioned how you picture the characters is up to you. Diversity is great but authors probably have to be careful to sound realistic when putting in characters that would have totally different experiences to them. Books about characters from different backgrounds are popular and there is definitely an appetite for them in the UK. I am a straight white English woman and I loved Fingersmith and The Beekeeper of Aleppo (off the top of my head). Seeing the world from someone else's point of view and getting to "climb into his skin and walk around in it" is one of the joys of reading for me.

I often think it comes down to detail. If there are specific details about a character's life and preferences then it's believable. But if they are sketched in with a couple of tick box diverse qualities then it stands out as an exercise. My son and his friends would hang around the kitchen doing impressions of teachers at school or talking about music or sport or who got pissed at a party. They'd never discuss 'being gay' or 'being Indian'. They were just having a laugh being teenage boys.

@Mothership4two The Beekeeper of Aleppo was written by a 2nd generation Cypriot refugee, so I would take what she wrote as knowing what she was talking about. Written by blonde blue eyed Claire from Grimsby, it might have been very different.

I think really if it's good it's good. If you can create character, plot, time and place you can do that. It shouldn't be a "thing" if they are gay or different ethnicity etc anymore than anything else. For eg you can read a book that is set in a different era to the previous era than the author had lived where it works or it doesn't and is jarring. Which should be the same whether a part of a straight character is played by a gay actor or vice versa is another aspect of this. The writer can either write successfully or they can't . An actor can act or they can't

I don't want to read (or watch) something because it's going to make me feel virtuous or "educated". I want to be entertained.

This is where it goes wrong though

I'd have credibility marketing a book about my parents' country, of which I know nothing. But I look the part and have the right name.

Honestly, I was writing a historical novel set in London and in a writing group I was asked by someone "why don't you write a book about YOUR history?"

she was most put out when I pointed out London history is my history.

Wow that's actually pretty racist of her.

I have seen the other side of this when American Dirt was published and the authour was criticised for not being Hispanic enough to write this . Well I'm not Mexican myself but I thought it was a great read.

@ValerieVomit

@Mothership4two The Beekeeper of Aleppo was written by a 2nd generation Cypriot refugee, so I would take what she wrote as knowing what she was talking about.

That was my point that there is a general appetite for diversity in books - from me as well! Those two books popped into my head as ones I had really enjoyed.

@SurvivorsInc Yes, it was racist but this lady and her ilk describe themselves as anti racist

It was easier to be accepted as a non white Brit 20 years ago than it is now, because there's now an obsession with skin colour and "cultural heritage", the latter usually meaning something about your ancestors from the 1700s.

It's one of many reasons I lost interest in contemporary fiction. Some views are more acceptable than others....policed by people who bang on about "diversity".

If I felt diversity was being shoehorned in I would put the book down. Can't say I've ever really noticed it but perhaps I instinctively avoid that sort of book.

Loving books from a variety of places though that is a different matter....

Over the years I've loved books by Naguib Mahfouz, Isabelle Allende, Robertson Davies, Balzac, Tolstoy, Hesse, Pamuk, JM Coetzee, Monaldo e Sorti.

Rich tapestry of life

I like it when you get a character who faces it. The internal dialogue of Strike is like this, he makes assumptions and then checks himself. I feel that's far more realistic.