Grey As Told By Christian
James Credit Michael Lionstar Condolences to the 1.1 million people who rushed out to buy E. James’s “Grey” in the first four days after its United States publication. All you got was a rehash of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the first grand-slam effort by the same author (word used advisedly) to turn soft-core bondage porn into an e-book bonanza. As a book (word also used advisedly) and, “Fifty Shades” featured two main characters: the virginal, fragrant, adorably lip-biting Anastasia Steele and the steely, handsome Christian Grey. Christian is incredibly young, rich and powerful, even if the name of his business, “Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc.,” sounds a little silly.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” was narrated by Ana, and not with a light touch. “Holy crap” was one of her favorite phrases, and she fell on all fours upon meeting Christian, hinting at the sadomasochistic relationship the book had in store for these two. English literature majors like Ana, who was finishing college as the book began, would recognize this as foreshadowing. Though Christian had all the power when they first met, and even tried to coax Ana into signing a written agreement to let him spank, whip, handcuff and gag her, she turned out to be too smart to be so easily enslaved. She sensed the lonely soul within the control freak. Thus the first book became yet another sexually graphic star-crossed romance, newly accessible to e-reading women who would never touch a paperback with Fabio on its cover. It went on to inflict more pain through bad writing than through any of the elegant floggers and ropes and cuffs lined up in Christian’s leather-upholstered, state-of-the-art “playroom.”.
James, a former writer of fan fiction who is nothing if not shrewd, has managed to outshine the many authors who write similar, better or crazier material than her own. (Check out the other reading choices made by Amazon’s buyers of “Grey.” There are more billionaire bondage books and paranormal shape-shifter werewolf romances than you might imagine.) But on the evidence of “Grey,” she’s going to milk the “Fifty Shades” franchise until it’s bone dry. So we now get the same story from Christian’s point of view, and there are two new elements: his insecurity and his Greek chorus. The chorus, which has a lot of opinions, is in Christian’s pants. That’s right: Ms. James’s own imagination is limited, and she has already taken it about as far as it’ll go. The story doesn’t have much action, and all of it has already been described in intimate detail by Ana.
Grey As Told By Christian Book
We know how she felt when she fell into Christian’s office on her hands and knees; what did he feel? Well, he felt that a pretty blue-eyed girl had landed on the floor, and he saw that she blushed like an innocent pale rose. And, “I wonder briefly if all her skin is like that — flawless — and what it would look like pink and warmed from the bite of a cane.”. (This is Christian’s favorite inner thought, followed by, “Get a grip, Grey!”) It turns out that the guy whose minimal magnetism was based on his aloofness has been revealed as tormented by lust and sensitive to Ana’s every twitch.
Copies of “Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian” by British writer EL James are on display at a London bookstore. (Facundo Arrizabalaga/European.
He has such intense feelings that his pants keep getting tight, and Ms. James has him mention that fact repeatedly.
Grey As Told By Christian Grey
Since she has very limited ways of hitting the hyperbole jackpot, she must actually say that when Christian has a hot thought, his penis concurs, as if the two were ever in disagreement about Ana. When he’s not conversing with his lap, he’s offering unspoken taunts to Ana: “ Oh, I could stop your fidgeting, baby.” It would be more appealing if he could stop his own. But Christian and his boatload of childhood traumas — which true submissives can no doubt explore in Ms. James’s future “Grey” versions of Parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy, “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed,” — radiate so much misery that a lot of the story’s heat is gone. The whole appeal of this character, I’m guessing, had to do with his combination of a wounded psyche and of an unstoppable ardor that could only be satisfied by Ms. The reader could experience the joint thrills of being ravished by him and allaying his deep-seated troubles.
When a billionaire who is the son of a crack whore has recurring dreams about being loved by his Mommy, isn’t his whip collection some kind of cry for help? Advertisement Speaking of cries for help, Ms. James leaves herself badly exposed by this book’s flagrant air of desperation. Her own fans write better stories about Christian Grey than she does. The fact that hers is the hidebound, trademarked and much-copied version doesn’t make it the important one. She has let time stand still in order to capitalize on one big hit, but she’s working in such a fast-moving medium that her failure of imagination is dangerous.
She didn’t exactly invent these characters in the first place: She was a “Twilight” fan who appropriated them, tweaked them and made them hugely salable for a while. But a Christian Grey who’s skittish, insecure and nervous as a kitten isn’t what she started out selling. So it remains to be seen how much blind faith she commands. “Grey,” with a final outcome already known to every “Fifty Shades” reader, departs on tepidly mixed notes of longing and machismo, in what is anything but a cliffhanger. Anastasia has left him. “Do I dare to hope?” his head wonders. Yes, I do,” the voice in his pants replies.