Liars and Saints

 Michael Connelly uses real-world events in startling ways.  In a recent novel, he had one of his main characters involved in an investigation of the Black Dahlia killing. Now (with "The Hollow"), Connelly is looking into the "Wonderland" murders--unsolved killings of four people in a particular house. Also, for whatever reason, Connelly is intrigued by "Gifts for Putin," an organization that raises funding for Ukrainian missiles. Missiles intended for use against Russia. "Gifts" for Putin. An additional "spark" for Connelly. The MacLaren Children's Center. This actually existed in Los Angeles. A kind of prison for orphaned kids, kids waiting to be adopted. Connelly treats the space as a haunted house. (It has just recently been razed.) The inciting event in the new Bosch novel is the impending death of Bosch; as the former cop gets older, he finds himself thinking more and more about his time at MacLaren. There was a particular dea...

 One thing I like about Sharon Horgan is that her characters have jobs--and the scripts take more than a few seconds to pay attention to the jobs. In "Catastrophe," the Horgan character is a teacher. Various subplots concern her return from maternity leave, her inability to reach one particular student, her ambitions for "dean-tier" status, her role in a poorly planned assembly. The other grade-three teacher stops by to joke about her dream of an early death, her wish for a 10am bottle of Merlot. It's an image of teaching that is absent from most other shows. "Divorce" follows the owner of a gallery--her fantasy of reconstructing the gallery is a kind of "counter melody" for the fantasy of reconstructing her own private life. "Youth" is new in the sense that a Horgan job setting has never been *more* important. A substantial part of the story happens at or around the office. The co-lead is an employer of Horgan/Alex; her name is Sam...

  Katie and Christina are sisters; in their youth, they lost their mother. Their father, Vinny, remarried; the *second* spouse had a daughter of her own, Rachel. Rachel had never known her actual father--Vinny just assumed the role of father-in-most-ways.  Now, Vinny is dying. Rachel does the caretaking--until she can't. Katie and Christina descend on the Manhattan apartment and start making phone calls. Hospice workers flow in and out of the space. Katie wants the death to simply happen; the liminal phase is disruptive for her life. She unloads her anger on Rachel; Rachel smokes too much pot, Rachel's choice of job is embarrassing, Rachel hasn't stocked the fridge properly. Rachel fights back: Katie is too imperious, Katie says "my father" instead of "OUR father." Christina, easily the most obnoxious of the three, lives in a fantasyland where everyone nervously apologizes after sneezing or clearing a throat. Christina tolerates a great deal--unless you ...

Diagnosis .  This is a word that has become fascinating to me. For a long while, "autism" was thought to be distinct from "Asperger's syndrome." But then it was revealed that Asperger was--literally--a Nazi. He supported the Nazi party. Several different kinds of quirky behavior were subsequently lumped under one umbrella, "Autism Spectrum Disorder." But if you hear the letters ASD, you may think of the phenomenon called "classic autism," a scenario that is characterized by *profound* isolation and a rigid need for repetitive behavior. Many professionals I've encountered argue that certain minor symptoms should *not* fall under the ASD umbrella. Instead, these symptoms should be called "quirky behavior." Caretakers.  I am not a social person, and I really hate the stream of caretakers that makes its way through my house. I hate that one of the current caretakers--a celebrated "behavior technician"--greets me by reporti...

  "Miss You, Love You" follows a He and a She -- but it's not a love story. In a way, it's like "Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York." Diane is a grieving widow in the Southwest. She is estranged from her son, but she hopes that he might attend his stepfather's funeral. Instead, he sends his assistant, Jamie. (The estranged son *might* materialize, but he is doing important journalistic work in Lebanon, and there are apparently complex timing/safety issues.) Diane is furious, and she doesn't "buy" her son's narrative. But she also understands that retaining Jamie is a way to dig up information about her son. So she plays host to Jamie. She probes him for details. She spies on his texting behavior. And Jamie has his own problems. He never really had an authentic relationship with the people in his immediate family--they died too soon. He envies Diane, because she truly knew her son. Before the estrangement, Diane and her son were ...

 Ten years ago, Brock Turner encountered Chanel Miller at a frat party at Stanford. Turner dragged Miller to a clearing behind a dumpster; while Miller was unconscious, Turner assaulted her. When witnesses approached, Turner tried to run away. An undergrad victim might have kept quiet; it is exhausting and stressful to try to pursue justice. Chanel Miller was not an undergrad; she had finished her schooling, and she had a full-time job. She also had a kind of otherworldly confidence--or at least she was able to feign confidence when others might have conceded defeat. The evidence was clear enough that a jury found Turner guilty of his crimes. Unanimous verdict. The extraordinary part of the story is Chanel Miller's impact statement. As others have noted, Miller is a born writer. This means she has a talent for saying the unsayable. She thought a great deal about her statement. She consulted Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird"; she actually began a written correspondence with...