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Standard Deviations

 I really liked Katherine Heiny's new book, "Early Morning Riser," which is like a sexier, raunchier version of Anne Tyler.

Heiny is interested in human behavior, in absurd moments that could happen in Jane Austen or happen in Curtis Sittenfeld; her work has a timeless quality. 

Here, Heiny describes a married couple. The man was famously promiscuous before settling down. This creates an issue when the couple gets pregnant:

What would they name the baby? Girls' names were problematic because Jane didn't want to give the baby the name of any of Duncan's old girlfriends, which meant they couldn't choose Ann, Annabel, Angela, Barbara, Brandy, Candy, Mandy, Mindy, Lindy, Cindy, Trudy, Judy, Jody, Jill, Jessica, Julie, Jennifer, Gina, Christina, Irina, Regina, Sabrina, Susan, Suzanne, Susannah, Sherry, Barrie, Carrie, Kerry, Mary, Michelle, Isabelle, Noelle, Gabrielle, Janelle, Danielle, Debbie, Denise, Darlene, Darcy, Marcy, or Vicki. And those were only the names he could remember! Lynn, Linda, Leslie, Lorie, Laura, Leah, and Lana were also out because Duncan had had a weeklong affair in 1996 with a woman whose name he never learned but whose initials were believed to be LTR based on the monogrammed towel she'd left behind. It was a nice towel. Jane liked it....

Basically every page is this funny. The writing is both unpretentious and unsentimental.

Also, the book is the most accurate account of teaching second grade that I know of. (One child refuses to walk to the bathroom, because "it's only sometimes there...when I turn left. Sometimes, it's there, and sometimes it's not. When it's not there, I don't pee." Sending a child two doors down to deliver a note to the principal means possibly saying goodbye to a student for a full hour--or even more!)

Additionally, the book captures what it feels like to be a parent of a young child, or children. ("She and her husband could do the nighttime ritual in under twenty minutes, if they picked the shortest lullaby they could think of....")

The book is smart about damage and meanness--how mysterious inner pain can cause people to make a mess. For example, the hero's mother insists on calling a little girl "Patty," when the girl's name is "Patrice." When corrected, the old lady says, in a stupefying way, "I'll use PATTY. We don't all get what we want in this world. The Earth can be a cold place. Patty needs to start to understand that."

I could go on. I'm sorry to have to part with these characters.
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