Still Life by Louise Penny

I'm not sure what made me want to read this book now - Louise Penny has been hanging out on the edges of my consciousness for some time.  I'm so glad I got around to reading it; I love it.

What I appreciate about this novel is the wide variety of topics Penny touches on in the course of the story.  One is the shifting emotional dynamic of a marriage; another is Quebecois separatism; another is art and antiques; another is the difficulty of coming out as a teenager discovers his homosexuality; another is the difficulty of mentoring a young know-it-all.

I have a friend who loves this series and says that she loves Inspector Gamache.  It's interesting; there are never any detective series about detectives who put their careers above finding the correct answer. Inspector Gamache is no exception to this rule; at one point he refuses to arrest a man whom he thinks is innocent and is forced to accept a suspension as a result.

The acknowledgments that Penny, a journalist, prefaced her novel with are perhaps more interesting than the book itself:  as she thanks her husband and her friends she's quite candid about how her single-minded focus and need for support might have made her a selfish friend, or at least a needy one.  And, she explains that she had won an award from other authors for her unpublished manuscript which made the eventual publication of Still Life possible.

8/30/15

I saw Louise Penny interviewed by Terry Tazioli on Well Read, an author interview show on PBS (produced in Seattle), about a month ago.  Penny said several things I found very interesting.  One was that when she was working on Still Life, she anticipated writing a series and figured, since she was going to spend so much time with her lead character, Inspector Gamache, she thought she should make him someone she would enjoy.  Later she realized that Inspector Gamache was a lot like her husband.

She also told Tazioli that her aim in writing Still Life was to show that there was still good in the world.  I thought that was so surprising, in a way, because revealing the murderer shows the reality of evil, doesn't it?  I may not understand.  But a quality that Still Life has is that it celebrates friendship and connection.

The Next Always and Key of Light by Nora Roberts

Well, I thought I ought to finally get around to reading Nora Roberts, and I finally did.  I picked up Key of Light at a garage sale and The Next Always at the library.

I started Key of Light (2003) first and finished The Next Always first; as I began both novels I was very disappointed to see that they both had supernatural elements.

Key of Light is about some attractive, thoroughly modern mortals who rescue some trapped Celtic goddesses (I guess you have to be there) and The Next Always is about a bookstore owner and Iraq widow falling in love with the guy who had a crush on her all through high school and is now directing the renovation of a local, historical inn that is haunted.

What surprised me most is that they are so well-written.  I expected nothing but romance, but found that Roberts was skilled at description, setting and dialogue.

Some of her dialogue really snaps and is truly witty.  Some of it, especially in The Next Always, is a surprisingly accurate portrait of how folks really talk.  I greatly admire writers who can capture true speech; it's one of the things I admire about Lee Smith.

And, I was surprised that, in my non-linear way, I gradually became interested in and enjoyed reading both novels (I'd originally planned to just read a little, just to get the flavor).  Honestly, I didn't read all of The Next Always -- I read the first few chapters and then, picking it up in the middle, read all the way to the end.

Something else I find interesting is that both novels feature a group of three women who get together and go into business for themselves.  In Key of Light, it's a combination bookstore, art gallery, hair salon; in The Next Always, it's a gift shop at the Inn.

A writer named Lauren Collins wrote an interesting and judicious profile of Nora Roberts that appeared in the New Yorker in 2009.  I read it when it appeared.

What I read most from the profile is the following passage:

At dinner with Roberts and Wilder one night, I mentioned a scene in her novel "Birthright," in which the heroine, Callie Dunbrook, receives a coffee-table book about Pompeii from a man who may or may not be her father, who confesses to once having made the mistake of selecting an automotive accessory as an anniversary gift for his wife.


"You'll never live it down," Roberts said to Wilder, who was engrossed in a large platter of eggplant parmigiana.
She turned to me. "He doesn't even know what I'm talking about!"
Roberts continued, "First Christmas! What did you give me our first Christmas?"
"I don't remember," Wilder replied.
"I do. Car mats."

What I'm reading now

I've just finished Wallflower at the Orgy by Nora Ephron; I'm reading the Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie, & Nora Roberts' Key to Light.

Bet Me and Faking It by Jennifer Crusie

Just finished Bet Me (2004, I think).  I'd read Faking It a few years ago.

Both books feature outlandish plots, witty dialogue and lots of pop culture references.  This seems to have been a bigger feature in Faking It, filled with references both known and obscure, to '50's hits, than in Bet Me.  In Bet Me I was not surprised, then, to encounter Elvis and learn that Min was a huge fan.  But when Elvis Costello was mentioned I was really surprised to find myself grounded in the late 20th century.  The outlandish plots do make a reader feel ungrounded.

In Bet Me, the heroine falls in love with a guy who takes her out to win a bet (and she knows this).  She falls in love but most unwillingly. (The convention that folks fall in love despite themselves, their other plans, the machinations, wishes and expectations of others is fulfilled here; the love interest's ex-girlfriend is a psychologist and still wanting him, uses her expert knowledge to attempt to manipulate him).  Crusie shows a sympathetic understanding of female psychology.  Something I enjoyed greatly is that Crusie developed the supporting characters - the friends of the tormented couple and her sister.

In Faking It, the plot is even more outlandish.  The heroine meets the man of her dreams in a closet, early in the novel.  And they kiss, before page 30.  (Kissing is very big in Crusie's books and there is a little sex.)  A major impediment to their romance, despite their brief acquaintance, is that they are both engaged in illegal activities which leads to having a lot of secrets, misunderstandings and hesitations - why, just the very elements that make up a great romance story.

I think Bet Me could make a cute film.  I don't know if its cliched elements make it more or less filmable.  I think the "nutty" outlandish elements might be tricky but given the reliance on convention in this genre, it seems a shame to lose them - they're outlandish but original in an environment that's more predictable than a Holiday Inn.