Liars and Saints

 I liked Laura Lippman's new book of stories--"Seasonal Work"--and I appreciated the many murders, false identities, affairs, acts of spying, and even allusions to the supernatural. Lippman is often thinking about power--and specifically the link between power and gender. One story takes us back to the most-eventful days of the Cold War; a housewife makes a habit of studying her neighbors (the one with conspicuous makeup under her eye, the one who stores vodka in a water bottle, the one who seems to walk far, far from "the office" on an ostensible trip to work). Through a series of amusing twists, the housewife becomes aware of Kim Philby and Philby's colleagues--and, by the end of the story, she has opted to "donate" her eagle eye to the neighboring offices of the CIA. A "bestie" invents a Match.com persona so that she can off her obnoxious girlfriend; she then plans to steal the girlfriend's spouse. A smart little girl studies her s...

  I haven’t consistently loved Laura Lippman’s most recent titles, but this week I flashed back ten (ten-ish) years and borrowed Lippman’s one volume of short stories, “Hardly Knew Her.”   This is mostly tales of women murdering men. A high-powered madam assists with the cover-up after her awful brother-in-law “falls down the stairs.” A young person in a “nude” suit – with a little pony-tail – eats a man’s heart on Mardi Gras, in New Orleans.   Elsewhere, a divorcee worries that she will lose her house to her ex, so she feigns lesbian love for a fellow PTA Mom—and the smitten Mom then has a convenient “car accident.”   In one rare story—told, unusually, from a boy’s perspective—a woman brings a cooler of sandwiches to the races. But, in fact, there’s something hidden under the sandwiches—a collection of human organs.   As usual, Lippman shows off her eye for detail. A madam at Starbucks thinks about how the Pike Place empire revolutionized the café world—how Sta...

 For the record, my sense is that the book of the summer is Katherine Heiny's "Early Morning Riser." In the past couple of months, I haven't read a better new novel. Heiny's book helped me lose my sense of time passing, for a while, and I still think about it. It's a book in which things actually happen: someone is jilted at the altar, thefts occur, a random death occurs, adultery is contemplated. The characters--including a carping, damaged retiree, a new version of John Steinbeck's "Lenny," a grifter, an anxious second grader--stay with you. I especially like the music teacher, who brings her mandolin to all social events, and weaves passive-aggressive real-time commentary into the songs she improvises (quietly, on the margins). But I'm also excited about: *"Dream Girl" (Laura Lippman) *"What Happened to Paula" (Dykstra) *"Billy Summers" (Stephen King) *"The Turnout" (Megan Abbott) *"Perversion o...

  Laura Lippman's new collection of personal essays is uneven, but God Bless Her for trying something different. A while ago, she wrote an essay about becoming a mom in one's fifties--"Game of Crones"--and the new book grew out of that. Lippman continuously pushes herself; in her late thirties, she left a newspaper job to focus on a fiction-writing career; now, as an established writer, she is attempting a new genre. An important part of essay-writing is being a contrarian--thinking "against" conventional tides--and Lippman has this mastered. "Anthony Hopkins was the least-compelling Hannibal. I don't like Ian McEwan novels. I don't feel bad about my neck, and I have decided to eat exactly what I want when I want it." Other things we learn in this book: *Lippman generally seems to have liked the final season of her husband's show, "The Wire." *Lippman sometimes dines with a Famous Actress. (I'm assuming this is Mindy Kalin...

A little girl stumbles into a pet shop. We're led to believe that the creepy store clerk semi-accidentally murders this girl.....but, later, it's revealed that the clerk's elderly mother did the deed. (Shades of "Psycho" here.) An African-American woman is targeted by a wealthy white businessman. Conveniently, the woman seems to drown in a fountain. Or did she murder her roommate, toss her roommate in the fountain, and leave some "clues" to suggest that heavy drugs played a role they hadn't actually played? A woman in need of cash suddenly loses her heavily-insured engagement ring. Did someone really steal that ring--or is it hidden underneath an African violet, in the living room? These are all scenarios that interest the novelist Laura Lippman, and they're all a part of "Lady in the Lake," Lippman's most-recent novel. Lippman likes to borrow from actual life--her novel, "What the Dead Know," e.g., takes details fro...

It's always fun to recall great writers and poke around and see what they're doing next. On my horizon....and maybe on yours.... *"My Life as a Villainess" -- Crime-writer-and-sensation Laura Lippman is releasing her first book of essays (due in May). Enjoy! *"Friends and Strangers" -- J. Courtney Sullivan. JCS writes smart, plot-rich tales about people struggling through awkward encounters, people communicating badly and then trying to clean up the mess. I very much like the title of this upcoming book. (June.) *"What Happens at Night" -- One of my favorite writers, Peter Cameron, returns with a creepy tale about creepy fish-out-of-water--a topic he tends to handle well, as in the novel "Andorra." (August.) Mark your planner. Can't wait!

The crime novelist Laura Lippman attended Northwestern, then worked as a journalist for something like twelve years. She wanted to write stories. The Tess Monaghan series began: smart detective books with an unusually rich, detailed setting, complicated "love letters" to Baltimore. The fabulous success of the Monaghan books seemed to help bring about a "life change" for Lippman; a marriage ended, and a new marriage began, and this time the spouse was David Simon, who created "The Wire." By all accounts, David Simon has an unwieldy ego, and you would want someone as tough as Lippman to cut him down to size. I don't know about you--but, if given a choice between a pretentious "Wire" episode and a twisty, fast-moving Lippman novel, I will choose the Lippman novel every time. Midway through the Monaghan books, Lippman seemed to grow restless: "Stand-alone novels" began to appear on the scene. Maybe this is why people call Lippman th...