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Genre question from a newbie!

PSIchotic

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Hello!

I was having a discussion with my daughter about books in general last night, and we came around to talking about a genre she loves (romance) and a genre I love (autobiographical non-fiction) when I stumbled on a question neither of us could answer.

Looking for the answer to that question lead me to google "book readers forum", which brought me here!

So, here's my question...

We were trying to come up with well-known or well-received books that combined these two genres, that is, basically, non-fiction romances.

Since I don't read a lot of romances myself, not surprisingly, I could only think of one book that even loosely fit that description: "The Bridge Across Forever" by Richard Bach.

My daughter couldn't think of anything she had ever read that might fit that description.

So, my question(s) to the good, active readers of these boards are:

Can you think of books (either well-known or obscure) that is basically a non-fiction take on romance?

And, if there just aren't very many, why not?

I guess I could theorize that romance is about fantasy, not reality, so the two genres don't mix very well, but haven't there been some "real life" romances that are worth both writing about and reading about?

Maybe it's the idea that once the initial bloom of romance devolves down into housework and habit, it's just hard to continue to find the romance.

Anyway, thanks for the interesting forum, and I appreciate any insights!

Shawn
 
There are non-fiction books of lifelong enduring love. One I like is Vera (the life of Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) by Stacy Schiff. Though it is nominally a biography of her, there is a lot of him in it also, considering their very long marriage and life together.
 
Although it isn't straight romance by ANY stretch, and although it is in diary form, The Diary of Anne Frank comes to mind. I have read several holocaust/WWII memoirs that have some romance in them, like Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman.
 
There are many real love stories in ancient Eastern cultures that perhaps no western knows. For example, Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punnu, Laila Majnu etc..
 
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