This isn't really a rant as much as it is a pondering (is that a word?).  It's about a book's setting and how you perceive it.  I just finished Rachel Gibson's Sex, Lies and Online Dating.  It was a humorous romance with suspense overtones.  It also took place in Boise.  Now most books do not have settings in Boise or even Idaho.  But Ms Gibson is a Boisean and has set a couple of books in Boise and a few others in Idaho.  For some reason, the setting seemed more vivid in this one than the others.  It starts at a Starbucks in a strip mall next to a Blockbusters--yeah I know that Starbucks.  The streets that were mentioned I knew them, the areas of town I knew them.  I could picture the settings (hell, I know the local Barnes and Nobles like the back of my hand).

I've read other books that have taken place in settings that are ficitional yet familiar.  Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad series comes to mind.  It takes place in a fictional town in a fictional county in Tennessee.  But really, the names have just been changed to protect the innocent I can tell you the town's real name and that of the county, it's only about 30 miles from my parents's home towns. But rarely have I read a book that is so familiar in the setting.

It's almost like Boise was a real person making a special appearance in a fiction book.  (Note, this isn't a criticism of Ms. Gibson, it's my perception that is confusing).  In a way, it's like having your best friend showing up as a character in a novel.  Just weird.  And I wonder how people who live in NYC, Chicago, LA and the other big cities feel about seeing their hometown in print.

Also, since I'm working on a contemporary that takes place all over the globe, in cities that I know a bit and some I've never been in, I have to wonder how do you make it believeable.  What are the problems with real life settings?  Do they help or hinder the book?

 

Not from LA or NYC or Chicago, but from Baltimore MD. Nora Roberts set her last hardback there, and while she got the neighborhood feel right for Little Italy and the other places in the book, the reality of downtown homeownership (particularly for rowhouses in Little Italy) was not quiet right. On one hand, I could tell that she'd done research on the city; on the other hand, I could tell she didn't understand the reality of rowhouses. I even bitched about it in my first SBD rant.:)

Well. Where do I start? :P Cities/towns that crop up in romances most are London, Bath and Brighton. And of course, there is Scotland [I won't even go there because I know my heart can't take it today].
jmc got it spot on, there is quite a few romance novels, historicals included, that provide many oh-so-authentic details about this country's towns and cities, but you can tell that these authors, as jmc puts it, "didn't understand the reality of" those places, especially where distances are concerned. Actually, I'd say it's the same for most parts of this country! :)
I did stumble across one "Scottish historical" romance that has a place that I immediately recognise as a village near my hometown. This author had all those details, describing this village next to the sea with a certain lighthouse standing tall on the edge. It was all very nice, but a) the story takes place in 1800s and b) this village wasn't created until early 1940s, due to a POW camp near there during WII. I felt bad for the author, actually, because she really did her homework, describing it so well. Anyhow, overall, I'm not bothered 'seeing' towns/cities, my former residences, in novels or films because I'm so used to it, especially where London, Newcastle and Edinburgh are concerned. :)