A writer I like, Katherine Heiny, has a new novel coming out tomorrow ("Early Morning Riser"). The buzz is substantial. Heiny writes in a playful, smart way about people whose lives are messy. For example, here is how Heiny once began a short story, "The Dive Bar":
So picture Sasha innocently sitting alone in her apartment on a hot summer afternoon and the phone rings. She answers and a woman says, “This is Anne.”
“Who?” says Sasha.
“I think you know,” Anne says.
“Well, I don’t.” Sasha is not trying to be difficult. She honestly doesn’t know. She is trying to think of possible Annes whose voices she should recognize. Is it someone she missed an appointment with? Is this the owner of that camera she found in a cab last month and kept—
“I’m Carson’s wife,” Anne says.
Sasha says, “Oh!” And even if she sat around from now until eternity saying Oh! every few seconds, she would never be able to inject it with as many layers of significance and wonder again.
“I was thinking we ought to have a drink,” Anne says. And to paraphrase Dr. Seuss, Sasha does not know quite what to say. Should she meet her for drinks? Now what should she do? Well, what would you do if your married lover’s wife asked you?
I like this because so many writers believe that their narrators need to be buttoned-up--and Heiny breaks the rules. Her narrator is weirdly chatty--beginning the story with "So...." Her narrator tosses in "The Cat in the Hat," for fun. And Heiny's narrator knows to break off the "stolen-camera" memory mid-sentence: This is a clever comment on Sasha's unwillingness to look at her own behavior.
I recommend Heiny's first book--"Single, Carefree, Mellow"--and I'm excited for the new one.
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