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A Ridiculously Talented Writer

 












I have a pact with myself not to think about money in the morning. I'm like a teenager trying not to think about sex. But I'm also trying not to think about sex. Or Luke. Or death. Which means not thinking about my mother, who died on vacation last winter. There are so many things I can't think about in order to write in the morning.


Adam, my landlord, watches me walk his dog. He leans against his Benz in a suit and sparkling shoes as I come back up the driveway. He's needy in the morning. Everyone is, I suppose. He enjoys his contrast to me in my sweats and untamed hair.


When the dog and I are closer he says, "You're up early."


I'm always up early. "So are you."


"Meeting with the judge at the courthouse at seven sharp."


Admire me. Admire me. Admire JUDGE and COURTHOUSE and SEVEN SHARP.....


Many people have praised Lily King's most recent novel, "Writers and Lovers," including Curtis Sittenfeld, Tessa Hadley, and Elizabeth Strout. It's worth the buzz. I bought it last week, and I was so happy to have it over the weekend. The holidays are a particularly messy time for me, and it's therapeutic to have a book about a messy person; knowing you have the book is like knowing there is a great guest sitting in the next room, waiting for you, at all times.


"Writers and Lovers" is about money, sex, death, and family, all the things the speaker commands herself to "tune out" at the beginning. It's also about misogyny, what it means to have a "mean streak," the inner life of a Cambridge waitress, the actual quotidian demands of wait-staff work, and the emotional needs of small children. This novel has two of my favorite fictional small children--at least among the favorites I've encountered in the past year.


Also, the book is about KFUCKED--a radio station Anne Lamott invented in her memoir "Bird by Bird." KFUCKED is when your own mind turns against you. The star of "Writers and Lovers" all but persuades herself she is dying, with minimal evidence, and her neurosis is riveting to behold. It's as riveting as a book about a mountain climber in peril. If you have dealt with anxiety, the phenomenon of having a "monkey mind," then this is the book for you.


I flew through this one, and I recommend it.

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