I like Elinor Lipman's books. Her writing style is light and insightful and funny and deft, however, this one seemed to fall short of her usual mark as it was a bit too predictable. I loved the characters and loved that it's a nice, easy read...but I find that I really preferred her other books more.That said, let me defend The Dearly Departed. Her story has a great premise - the daughter of a single mother and the son of a single father learn that their parents have died at the same time (from a gas leak that leadto carbon monoxide poisoning). The strange thing is that, arriving to the double funeral, they find they look uncannily alike (they both have wispy, prematurely-white hair - a feature they apparently shared with his father). Lipman doesn't keep us in suspense, we pretty much learn right away that he is the father to both of them, the daughter being the result of a long-standing affair between the two parents. What happens as the characters try to untangle this story is our entertainment as it's almost like A Comedy of Errors, in a way, with everyone using a different set of assumptions to operate and slight misunderstandings and mis-timed overtures at every turn.The only complaint I could possibly have was that Lipman just didn't seem to see the need to "raise the stakes" - her characters just poked around the small town, figuring things out and talking to each other and things came to a conclusion. I didn't mind, though it's unusual nowadays not to have a bomb or a pregnancy or a deadline in a story to make it keep pace with 24 and give us an adrenaline rush. Basically, once I figured out that I wasn't waiting for zombies or anything I really enjoyed the story. Which is the point, after all, of a novel.Lipman's books look as if they must be 'guilty pleasure' books, but I swear they're good! Just don't read this one first or you may not return for more. Lipman has a singular voice and dry sense of humor. They're in a class of books that is hard to come by--maybe not 'literary fiction' but fun, well-written studies of people.
Another book that I have been working on, oh, since August. I found this book when I still worked at KZLA and it looked like something I could resell, so I took it. But of course, I have to read it first.Sunny returns to the small town in NH that she grew up in after the sudden death of her single mother and her "gentleman friend". A freak gas leak accident that also brings the gentleman friend's son to the town as well. They figure out that the man who died is also Sunny's father, though she didn't know it all growing up. The town has kind of turned their back on Sunny and her mother over the past few years because Sunny's mother was kind of the town floozie and her boss at the doctor's office was in love with her. Sunny was the best golfer in town growing up, as her and her mother lived on the local golf course, but was made fun of a lot in high school because of it and left town on a scholarship soon after. When she comes back to town for the funeral, one of the kids she went to high school with is now the town cop and makes a move on her. She decides to stay as she currently has no where else to go and stays in her half-brothers fathers house, because he had a country house in the town that he rarely used a long time ago, but used all the time now, thanks to Sunny's mother being in town.I am tired. Sorry if this recap was confusing. The book kind of was as well, because there were lots of good stories in this book about these characters, but none of them connected well. It was good writing and good stories, but you kind of didn't really care about the people all that much. Took me forever to finish this book.Grade: C-
What do You think about The Dearly Departed (2002)?
Just read this again duing a rapid week of back to back books during some sleepless nights :) Really enjoy Lipman's characters, have a totaly crusj on Joey the cop. Also loved the girls v. boys tension around Sunny's golfing, very cute. Reminded me a lot of my old favorite Anne Tyler, since Lipman does the chapter by chapter switch in narrative -- Carrie, I'm *sure* there's a word for this, inform me! And Lipman is SOOOO good about her choices for when to drop the f-bomb, it's so effective. There are only a few of them in the book, but they work so well.
—Anna
