NCSU instructor's debut novel gains attention from Amazon
BY DAVID FRAUENFELDER - Correspondent
Elisa Lorello
N.C. State University English instructor Elisa Lorello has put a new spin on writing what you know.
Her debut novel, “Faking It,” features a heroine, Andi Cutrone, who is also an English professor - one who is passionate about composition theory and rhetoric.
The new spin has to do with a very nontraditional student - Devin, a male escort - who signs up for Andi's tutorial on writing, and repays the professor with his own tutorial on relationships and intimacy.
This titillating premise may have helped “Faking It” become a hit as a self-published e-book, get picked up by AmazonEncore, Amazon.com's newly minted publishing wing. The novel is now in paperback and enjoying Amazon's wide marketing reach.
But “Faking It” is not as salacious as you might think. In fact, it is surprisingly chaste: The impossibly gorgeous Devin spends his time with his clients as often in counseling or listening mode as in other ways. Andi, for her part, is super-cautious with relationships. The first half of the book is spent very much in theoretical mode, with frequent references to ancient philosophy, modern scholarship and psychology.
Then, as the novel progresses, the reader begins to see Devin, who at first is too sensitive, wonderful and straight to be believed, as a whole person, with a past, a family and issues.
Andi grows in fits and starts, realistically. And although it is no surprise when Devin and Andi start to show more than an academic interest in each other, the novel does not follow a predictable course. Veteran readers of women's fiction will enjoy the twists and turns.
Lorello writes earnestly, expecting that her audience will take to her heroine's survey of the Composition 101 syllabus. Some readers will be tempted to skip over the full transcripts of Devin's rough drafts, or Andi's scholarly name-dropping. A New York editor would have found much to cut and reshape.
But this is the beauty of “Faking It.” There is no Random House sheen to this book. You can tell that the author is the one who chiefly believes in it. It is rough in parts, but always imaginative and spirited.
As more authors take the plunge into digital publishing, there will be more Elisa Lorellos. And hopefully, more from Elisa Lorello.