Lily King has to be among the top writers of English-language fiction--among the top on any list--it's not debatable. "Writers and Lovers" is a modern classic, and, amazingly, its sequel is also outstanding.
King is able to invent complex people and persuade you that they're real. She puts combustible personalities in one room. The characters are almost always working their way through a maze; the maze is almost always called Sex, Love, or Death. The stakes are always high.
I think I love King's protagonist (Casey) so much because her world is my own world. In "Heart the Lover," we see Casey in college among nerds; some of the discussions are about David Hume. Casey thinks that structure is not always the most important element of a novel; her friend Yash disagrees. Casey: "What about images? What about voice?" Yash: "It's always structure." Casey: "WAR AND PEACE doesn't have an especially artful structure...." Yash: "Are you kidding? Tolstoy is reworking the Iliad....reworking the Aeneid....he is building the Taj Mahal!"
In my favorite passage, Casey is in the death throes of her college relationship with a guy named Sam. We all know Sam. He is both brilliant and idiotic. He is angry, confused, misogynistic, deeply religious. He has encouraged Casey to help him stop smoking; she has taken the job seriously. At a dance, Casey spots Sam accepting a cigarette from a friend. She intervenes; she grabs the cigarette. This becomes a tug of war; apparently, Sam wants Casey to help him *except* at a public dance. (Sam has not clearly articulated any kind of "rule set.") There is a scuffle--and Sam knocks Casey to the ground.
King does something surprising around the "one third" mark. She leaps forward in time; she gives us a reason why her central trio of college kids would remain interlinked over decades, and she shows why the bonds are tenuous. Without ever being sentimental, King describes several kinds of love. Your pulse begins to race. These people are not real! But King gets you hooked.
Just a fully rave-worthy effort. This is like Sutton Foster building off "Thoroughly Modern Millie"--turning around and giving us "Anything Goes." Five stars.
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