Liars and Saints

  Lily King called her first story collection "Five Tuesdays in Winter"; the title is a dare. King is daring herself to find extraordinary moments within superficially banal settings. Extraordinary moments within a "winter Tuesday." Mitchell's daughter, who was twelve, accused him of loving his books but hating his customers. He didn't hate them. He just didn't like having to chat with them or lead them to clearly marked sections--if they couldn't read, why were they buying books? .... His daughter loved the customers. She sat behind the counter at the cash drawer every Saturday, writing up receipts in an illegible imitation of his own hand and chatting like an innkeeper. She was too tall and too sophisticated for a Maine preteen. She made him uneasy. She had recently learned the word "reticent" and used it on him constantly.  "Isn't he the most reticent person you've ever met?" she asked Kate, his only other employee. ...

 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...

  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 Eli...