By Lisa Scottoline
An attorney at Rosato & Associates, a Philadelphia firm comprised entirely of women, Mary DiNunzio enjoys playing detective as much as she does practicing law. In this follow-up to Scottoline's best-selling Dead Ringer, the young widow is hired by the estate of Amadeo Brandolini, an Italian immigrant who committed suicide in an American internment camp during World War II, to sue the U.S. government for reparations. A hunch that Brandolini may have been murdered leads the tenacious DiNunzio (like the author, an Italian-American who grew up in South Philly) to a long-concealed conspiracy—and into unexpected danger.
A former trial lawyer and an Edgar Award-winner, Scottoline does a commendable job of combining a murder mystery with historical fact. Along with creating a sympathetic protagonist, she vividly evokes Italian-American culture and explores a difficult moment in U.S. history. But Killer Smile moves more slowly than its humorous predecessor (whose sharp-tongued heroine—Mary's boss, Bennie Rosato—was more fearless and fun). The first two-thirds of Scottoline's thriller proceed at a glacial pace. Only in the final chapters does it spring to life and become an exciting whodunit with an ending that's both surprising and satisfying.
THRILLER
By Adam Langer
CRITIC'S CHOICE
There isn't much plot in this slice-of-life study, but what a heaping slice it is. Langer drills to the core of people—five gifted teens and their clueless elders in 1979-81 Chicago—as deeply as Jonathan Franzen did in The Corrections, and like Franzen, Langer is going to need a trophy case.
Langer deploys a photographic memory and deadpan wit as he juggles the bat mitzvahs, feuds and hookups of 10 major characters from either side of the class boundary of California Avenue during the Iran hostage crisis. He begins and ends with the halting romance of two awkward geniuses: Jill Wasserstrom, who lost her mom to cancer and takes refuge in extremist politics, and Muley Wills, a poor African-American kid who declares his love for Jill by making films. But it's Jill's sister, budding actress Michelle, who steals the show, ruling scene after hilarious scene (for a stretch she pretends to be a Russian defector named Peachy Moskowitz) with her acid tongue. Like the author, she will dazzle you with her smarts.
NOVEL
By David Sedaris
A chain-smoking smart aleck, Sedaris explores the lunacy of his loved ones (and others) in a collection of mordant tales that can be laugh-out-loud funny. You'd think that the best-selling storyteller (Me Talk Pretty One Day) and NPR star would have run out of dish by now, but Sedaris has a few juicy ones left, and each is told with stand-up precision. In "Let It Snow," the author's frazzled mother locks her four kids out of the house on a no-school snow day—so he and his sibs persuade kid sis Tiffany to lie in the middle of the street to teach Mom a lesson: "It was really the perfect solution. With her out of the way, the rest of us would be more valuable and have a bit more room to spread out."
Sedaris can be ruthless about exposing his family's foibles (his sister Lisa is afraid of cell phones; Dad kicked him out of the house for being gay), but he also mocks himself and explores cross-cultural absurdities. Now living in France with his boyfriend, Sedaris recounts the story of their search for a Paris flat—a quest so dispiriting that, when they visit Amsterdam and happen upon the "adorable" triplex where Anne Frank lived, he finds himself thinking not of her brave words ("I still believe all people are really good at heart") but wondering, "Who do I have to knock off in order to get this apartment?" Sedaris junkies will know just how he means that.
ESSAYS
By Claire Tristram
Tristram picks a formidable topic for her first book—a revenge fantasy played out in a single day in the life of an American woman whose husband was killed by Muslim extremists. As the anniversary of her loss approaches, the heroine (never named) decides to take a Muslim lover—choosing a married man painfully aware of his outsider status in America. She is both attracted to and repulsed by Changiz, and her agenda is unclear until the end of their assignation. As the suspense builds, the author neatly switches from the widow's perspective to her lover's—bringing in touches like his recognizing her from news stories and scoffing at a rehearsed line about how she endures with the help of Zoloft. ("Don't treat me like I'm your audience," he says.) Still, the fact that Tristram leaves the widow nameless feels manipulative; ultimately, Changiz's life is more sharply drawn than hers, and it makes his take on the ironies of their liaison more compelling.
NOVEL
By Kent Haruf
The town of Holt, Colo., has been dying since Haruf conjured it up in his first novel in 1984. It's a place where farmers accept less and less for their yearlings and more folks are living on food stamps. In this sequel to Haruf's moving Plainsong (a bestseller in 1999), the ties that bind Holt' s residents to land and family continue to unravel, and loneliness hangs like a pall over the high plains. The author brings ranchers and teachers from Plainsong together with newcomers, including a mentally challenged couple with two children. Their stories linger, unforgettable and stark.
The Bastard on the Couch
Cathi Hanauer edited The Bitch in the House, a tart 2003 bestseller that featured women's essays on subjects including marriage. Now, in The Bastard on the Couch, edited by her husband, Daniel Jones, men speak up.
WHY A REBUTTAL? Jones: Some of the writers in Bitchwere married to men I knew. I felt the same way I did for them as I did for myself—a little sorry for their inability to speak for themselves.
SO WHAT'S BUGGING GUYS? Jones: A lot of them are struggling with what it is to be a man. They're in a relatively weaker position compared to previous generations. And husbands are on the defensive; women are going out and grabbing what they want very aggressively, and a lot of men are caught off guard in their marriages.
HOW DO MEN AND WOMEN REACT DIFFERENT TO FRUSTRATION? Hanauer: Women are more likely to keep plowing through it and get angrier and angrier. Men are more likely to sit back and say, "This is what it is; I can't do any more."
DID BASTARD OPEN YOUR EYES? Jones: It made me see that I'm not the only one standing at the sink at 11:30 at night doing the dishes, wanting to go to bed and knowing I'll be scorned if I don't finish.
WHAT'S CHANGED IN YUOR LIVES? Hanauer: Editing these books was like two years of marital therapy for free. And don't have to be angry all the time. I'm not a raging bitch.
- Contributors:
- Rob Taub,
- Kyle Smith,
- Sean Daly,
- Maggie Haberman,
- John Freeman.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
