One thing that gets me through a long weekend is Ruth Rendell.
It's true that Rendell died, and that her output is finite; we won't be getting any new Rendell books, ever again. It's also true that there are some dips in quality; people seem not to get too excited about, say, "Grasshopper" or "Talking to Strange Men."
But give the lady a break. She wrote approximately ten trillion novels. And there are mic-drop classics mixed in there: "A Judgment in Stone," "A Demon in My View," "Make Death Love Me," "An Unkindness of Ravens,""The Tree of Hands."
Rendell's great gift was for characters who "jump off the page," as one reviewer noted. Even when they aren't admirable, you feel you know them, and you want to follow them on their weird, high-stakes journeys. I especially like Dora Wexford, who is resolutely sensible and courageous. And her daughters, with their young-people dramas. And Reginald Wexford himself, who struggles and persists and keeps his cards close to his chest.
Maybe it's unusual to give thanks for the works of a "novel-writing spiritual twin of Hitchcock"--but Ruth Rendell, among many other things, is what I'm thankful for this year.
Now: Pass the turkey!
P.S. My choices this weekend: "The Veiled One" and "Kissing the Gunner's Daughter." These are, apparently, "peak Wexford." Who could ask for anything more?
It's true that Rendell died, and that her output is finite; we won't be getting any new Rendell books, ever again. It's also true that there are some dips in quality; people seem not to get too excited about, say, "Grasshopper" or "Talking to Strange Men."
But give the lady a break. She wrote approximately ten trillion novels. And there are mic-drop classics mixed in there: "A Judgment in Stone," "A Demon in My View," "Make Death Love Me," "An Unkindness of Ravens,""The Tree of Hands."
Rendell's great gift was for characters who "jump off the page," as one reviewer noted. Even when they aren't admirable, you feel you know them, and you want to follow them on their weird, high-stakes journeys. I especially like Dora Wexford, who is resolutely sensible and courageous. And her daughters, with their young-people dramas. And Reginald Wexford himself, who struggles and persists and keeps his cards close to his chest.
Maybe it's unusual to give thanks for the works of a "novel-writing spiritual twin of Hitchcock"--but Ruth Rendell, among many other things, is what I'm thankful for this year.
Now: Pass the turkey!
P.S. My choices this weekend: "The Veiled One" and "Kissing the Gunner's Daughter." These are, apparently, "peak Wexford." Who could ask for anything more?
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