I finished reading The Writing Class by Jincy Willett last night at 2am. I would use the old cliche that I 'could not put it down,' but being a mother of four (one in absentia) I had to put it down quite a few times, reluctantly.
I thoroughly enjoyed it!
[Caveat to Sensitive Readers: You might reasonably be put off by the language of the 'bad guy' in the book, but hey, what kind of language would you expect a murderer to use while writing threats? Which reminds me of the Polly Klaus case in a northern California courtroom when her molester/murderer drew criticism and disgust for flipping off the child's family when the verdict was read. What kind of behavior did anyone expect from a person capable of killing a lovely little girl? The media seemed more outraged by his hand gesture than by his crime.]
The main character, Amy Gallup, is rather cynical, to say the least, which is partly why I find her so hilarious. Her take on life is brutally honest, but she has rare moments of warmth and compassion, too, especially while interacting with her basset hound, Alphonse. She embraces her flaws and insecurities and allows them to define the boundaries of her life so that she can live in a perpetual comfort zone, but her comfort zone is shaken with the new writing class she's teaching at the university extension.
"With remnants of creative energy," Amy Gallup blogs, too. Jincy writes about bloggers: "They clearly believed themselves on some sort of world stage, where they just might be attended to. They needed to communicate. Amy did not. If people stumbled across her site, fine, but it would exist without them, just like her books, whose continued presence in the Library of Congress was her ego's only comfort."
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a non-formulaic, literary murder mystery, to anyone who enjoys laughing and reading at the same time, to anyone who has ever thought of attending a writing class, to anyone who writes....
Jincy Willett is AMAZING! I only wish she were more prolific. On the other hand, I would not want to rush her. She's a writer who knows what she's doing. I stand in awe.
3 comments:
I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this book. Many thanks for recommending it. Lots of fun, after the first offensive bit from the bad guy point of view.
I picked this up at the library, remembering your post, and really enjoyed it. I must not have remembered your post that well (I just reread it) because I was sort of surprised when it turned out to be a murder mystery. (I usually only read a little bit on the jacket and if it sounds interesting I read the book.) Did you have the murderer pegged? I thought it was the one it ends up being, but I also thought it was everyone else at some point. :) Thanks for suggesting it.
I did not have the murderer pegged, but then I am not a very astute mystery reader. Allison always knows who the murderer is! I just find Jincy Willet hilarious and would probably read the phone book if she wrote it.
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