Someday my prince will come: Taylor Zakhar Perez & Nicholas Golitsyn in Amazon's Red, White & Royal Blue Credit: Jonathan Prime
When Queen Elizabeth II died last September, the Empire State Building was lit in purple in her honor, just one expression of grief and respect from a nation almost as deeply in mourning as ours. Forget the Revolutionary War and the current rumors of colonialism: Americans have always treated our royal family as if it still belonged to them. For America, our princes and princesses, castles and crowns, are the epitome of Disney fantasy: a very real world beyond the pond, where young girls can actually grow up to marry a prince.
This may explain why one of the biggest literary hits of recent years has been Red, White & Royal Blue by 32-year-old American writer Casey McQuiston, in which a non-royal meets a prince. Turn? This is a hilarious romance with geopolitical ramifications in which Alex, the cold-blooded and charismatic first son of an American president, enters into a whirlwind romance with the externally cold, but internally liberated English Prince Henry.
The upcoming Amazon film adaptation, which stars Uma Thurman as the President and Stephen Fry as the King of Britain, has been so feverishly anticipated that the key scene from the trailer, in which Alex and Henry stumble over a giant wedding cake, has nearly 25 million views on YouTube. TikTok.
Say Red, White & Royal Blue has taken the American publishing industry by storm—it's an understatement of the «memories may vary» proportions. It was originally published by St Martin's Press, the US publisher Macmillan, with little fanfare and without any of the usual endorsements, such as celebrity Instagram cheers and TV book club selections, which are often critical in the US to build a massive readership. audience. .
However, it ran through seven editions in its first year and sold 100,000 copies through word of mouth alone. It was a New York Times bestseller and currently has over 43,000 ratings on Amazon with an impressive average of 4.5 stars. It's the quintessential publishing success story that both defies algorithms — its editor, Vicki Lame, admitted that the prospect of a novel about the royal family was initially unattractive — and falls into a critical middle ground: frothy, sensual. a good rom-com that combines royal intrigue and political gossip with erotic excitement and LGBT zeitgeist appeal. >Fictional dramas that exploit the transatlantic obsession with royalty are a mini-industry in their own right, whether it's Channel 4's Harry Enfield satirical soap opera The Windsors or the primetime series E! The Royals, starring Elizabeth Hurley, ran from 2015 to 2018. Not to mention the ongoing unrelenting Netflix series The Crown, which is drawing more and more public outrage with each new season. for his creative blurring of fact by fiction.
There have been novels, mostly in the overtly commercial sleazy genre, including Heather Cox and Jessica Morgan's 2015 The Royal Us, a dizzying tale about an American girl who finds love with a royal prince, which McQuiston cited as an influence on Red, White & ; Royal blue. Forget the White House: apparently the real purpose of the American dream is to gain access to the British aristocracy.
Still red, white & Royal blue is different. Its viral success can be partly attributed to how it taps into a certain American liberal wish-granting fantasy after the 2016 presidential election. In the novel's alternate America, a white Texas Democrat, Ellen Claremont, is in the White House (think white Michelle Obama, not Hillary Clinton) with her 20-year-old mixed-race son. Sharp ideological conflicts between Democrats and Republicans largely determine the background of the narrative. In addition, there are positive messages about the identity and portrayal of strong but sensitive, politically aware masculinity — Alex and Henry fumble under an Alexander Hamilton painting — not to mention how the novel uses its gay storyline to gain popularity both in the UK. as well as in America. institutions.
Insight: Casey McQuiston, author of Red, White & Royal Blue Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images < p>Alex and Henry, getting together on New Year's Eve — «Henry is trying his best with one knee wrapped around Alex's thigh … subtle royal feelings are out of the question» — must keep their love affair a secret to avoid damaging the royal family's reputation, the campaign Claremont in 2020 and the «special relationship».
Moreover, McQuiston, who self-identifies as a homosexual and uses the pronouns they/they, has been careful to uphold the novel's cultural value: in addition to creating fake Spotify accounts for the book's protagonists, they regularly post additional information about the characters on Twitter. Since then, the afterlife of the novel has taken off: You can buy T-shirts that say «Vote Claremont 2024» on Etsy. The book was so widely read that the author reported that octogenarians showed up at book talks.
However, the novel's success also raises ethical questions about fiction's responsibility when it comes to quick and free play with individuals . the life of a living person.
Prince Harry is unlikely to complain about the novel's homosexual storyline, not to mention the sugary portrayals of Henry as extremely hot in bed. But he can admit to some personal misgivings about how the book uses the very real loss of his mother, albeit in a loosely fictionalized form: Henry, whose siblings are «Princess Beatrice» and «Prince Philip», suffered greatly from the sudden death his father 14 months ago. What's more, Harry's publicly voiced real-life struggles with mental health and struggles with debt, family, and the paparazzi make up much of the novel's fictional emotional capital. And forget the accusations of unconscious racial bias: this royal family is openly homophobic.
Nicholas Golitsyn as Prince Henry and Taylor Zachar Perez as Alex Claremont-Diaz in Prime Video's Red, White & Royal Blue Credit: Jonathan Prime
Of course, if Harry really has concerns about his personal misfortune being cannibalized by novelists in the name of art, not to mention money, one could argue that he has only himself to blame.
«The popularity of this book seems to suggest what many in Britain have long feared, which is that the royal family has become the Kardashians of popular culture,» says veteran British royal Robert Jobson, who publishes articles regularly. for NBC and who was the script editor for The Royals.
“And it's partly due to the whole Megxit case and the Netflix documentaries. First of all, it was Harry's book «Spare», which touched on many areas that are usually not put on public display. It's interesting because, until now, British publishers have not been particularly interested in such things.
Of course, Red, White & Royal Blue was not originally released in that country, although a new edition related to the film came out last month. An industry insider, who did not want to be named, notes that there are now sponsored posts about the book on Amazon's UK site, suggesting that the publisher is now putting serious money into it. The book also climbs up the Kindle and Apple charts.
ONE MORE WEEK ❤️🤍💙 @RWRBonPrime pic.twitter.com/iFb0QAKv97
— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) August 4, 2023
«I really think the author was very smart,» says Jobson. “This is an LGBT project by a writer who knows the market and uses the genre to create a bestseller. If this had been written 20 years ago, there would have been more hype about it. There is now a general apathy among the younger generation that does not have the same connection to the monarchy.
«And I definitely think there's more frivolity in the way the monarchy is perceived in America among the general public.»
Does this mean the floodgates are about to open? Will we see more of a novel about Katherine and Camilla's romance? Pay attention to this place.
Red, white and amp; Royal Blue goes to Prime Video on Friday
Свежие комментарии