'Sharp Objects': A Tale of Small Town Family Dysfunction

Review of SHARP OBJECTS (Shaye Areheart Books 2006)
Author, Gillian Flynn

SHARP OBJECTS appealed to me right from the start. Just the little bit I'd heard about it intrigued me--a Chicago reporter returns to her hometown to write about the murder of two adolescent girls. Along the way, she must deal with her own demons and tragedies from her past. All in the slightly creepy confines of the small town she grew up in.

That got my interest. But then I'm a big fan of David Lynch and that whole creepy small town thing.

The protagonist, Camille Preaker, works for a paper that's pretty low on the Chicago media food chain. Her editor sends her off to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri (from the Windy City to Wind Gap--I kept wondering if that was intentional), to investigate one girl's murder and another girl's disappearance. The second girl is also found murdered, and the killings may be connected. And no one else in Chicago is covering them. (Why would the Chicago papers cover two maybe-connected murders in a tiny town way down south in the Missouri bootheel?) So it would be a coup for the paper and Camille to break the news. (It would? Well, okay.)

One of Camille's issues is that her sister, Marian, died very young--a horrible wasting death that left its mark on Camille's psyche (and . . . shh, don't say it). Camille's big problem is not completely disclosed until around halfway into the book. Suffice it to say, you get clever little clues about what that problem is, but they aren't obvious. So when it was finally revealed, I went, "Oh . . . now I get it."

Another one of Camille's problems is her family situation. Her mother, in particular. Camille's mom, Adora, is quite the piece of work. Very la-de-da and rich. Very proper and ever so solicitous. Camille's step-father, Alan, constitutes little more than a thin, quiet presence in the house. He's so thin, Camille says, "I wanted to administer an IV when I saw him." (The book is full of great lines like that.) Together, the two have produced Camille's half sister, Amma. (All those A-names. That must have been intentional.) Amma seems to hold a special place in Adora's heart. She loves Amma in a way she's never loved Camille. The way she also loved Marian.

Amma, age 13, is quite a piece of work herself. She rules over a small group of bitchy, blonde preteens. Think "Mean Girls" in middle school. Camille is initially repulsed by her, but later gets to know her and harbor all sorts of feelings about her.

Meanwhile, there's still an investigation and articles to write. Camille strikes just the right balance between hard-nosed reporter (with her witty, blunt observations) and vulnerable victim (with her emotional baggage). The narrative unwinds at an unhurried, but relentless, pace. And the suspense builds.

Gillian Flynn writes beautifully. Her prose is so polished it just about shines. She can turn a phrase like nobody's business and makes you feel like you're inhabiting Camille's skin (which is . . . don't say it). Makes you feel Camille's reluctance to stay at her mother's house. Makes you feel how conflicted she is about doing her job and having to be in Wind Gap. Makes you smell the stink of the local hog farms and slaughterhouses--the ones off which Camille's mom made all her money (talk about filthy rich).

The story is an artful blend of suspense and whodunnit. The last thirty pages pour on the revelations and build to a climax that will hold you until the very end.

My only real nit-picking problem was with the Big Clue that starts the rush toward the climax. It's a thing from the past, but I can't say what it is, because it's a spoiler. I'll just say that maybe this kind of warning would go unheeded, even as recently as 20 years ago, in the boonies of south Missouri. Maybe.

Chalk it up to my big city ways, but I strained a bit to suspend my disbelief about that. However, I didn't mind.

'Your Money or Your Life': The Title Says it All

Review of YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE (Penguin Books 2008)
Author, Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez (with Monique Tilford)

For those who are struggling to save or just get a better understanding of how to handle money, YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE may seem like more than you need to know.

The book was actually written with debt-saddled people in mind--seriously debt-saddled, that is. The nine-step program within it (developed by the late Joe Dominguez) provides what I would describe as a holistic approach to financial planning.

Dominguez and Vicki Robin co-authored this book (which has just been updated with an assist from Monique Tilford) based on the program originally offered in seminars. Without going through all the nine steps (three fewer than twelve!), I think the message essentially boils down to this: your money has value, but it represents more than the value placed on it by the marketplace. When you consider what you make at your job, then subtract out how much it costs to do your job (your commute, dry cleaning, lunch, etc.), you may end up with net pay of much less than your official salary. Then add in the fact that you're not only expending money to keep a job, you're also expending time. Therefore, the money you're making not only represents a net value of earnings minus job-related costs--it also represents the life you've sacrificed to maintain that job.

Once you understand that money actually represents time in your life, you can start to view spending differently. You find yourself asking, "Is this sweater (or car or vacation) really worth the two hours (or four hours or forty hours) it's costing my life?"

There's also the concept of having enough--just enough so your needs and wants are met, but not too much. A Goldilocks view of acquisition. Because, as the book points out, simply buying things won't make us happy. Going into debt to buy things you don't need will make you less happy still. I love the term the authors use to describe people who work non-stop to support excessive lifestyles. Instead of "making a living," they call it "making a dying."

Finally, the authors tell you that their program will not only get you out of debt and keep you there, but will help you build savings and, ultimately, lead you to financial independence or FI (the state of having enough money so it will work for you, so you won't have to work for it).

Like I said, this book was based on seminars offered for people in debt, but I think it's useful for anyone who's trying to use and invest their money wisely. Sometimes the writing feels a tad repetitive. At least one discussion related to long-term care struck me as a bit simplistic. But mostly the ideas made sense to me.

The book has a boatload of success stories. Each person who's completed the program has different values, different risk tolerances, and so each has chosen a slightly different path toward becoming FI. They illustrate how the program can work for different people in different ways.

And how do you know when you've got enough? How do you determine what your money is really worth in terms of your life? And just how do you become FI? Three words: read the book.

Books--Still Useful, Still Popular, Not Dead Yet

Got a bit of a mash-up of book-related stuff that caught my eye (courtesy of The Reader's Advisor Online).

First, an interesting NY Times article on a literary alternative sentencing program for convicts.

Second, proof positive that print books are still in demand. But is this a book giveaway or a warehouse looting? (Check the third photo down. The title on the red book made me smile.)

Finally, if we switch to e-books, I guess we'll stop judging a book by its cover. (Assuming we ever did. Question: would complete conversion to e-books render that expression meaningless?) But some people would argue that the covers themselves can sometimes make the book.

Books on Cellphone

When I saw that Google (which has been busy digitizing books) and Amazon (which has been busy selling Kindles) are working together to make e-books accessible on cellphones, I thought, "Ugh! I have a hard enough time making out my text messages. E-books aren't my thing (yet), and you're not going to sell me on them by letting me download them to my phone."

I dunno--maybe it's just me. But reading a novel by cellphone seems almost as crazy as writing a novel on one.

The Girl who left in Peace, Singleton Hippie Art

The Girl who left in Peace(C) Singleton 2009SOLDAnd there she was,the face behindthe musty, dustywrite~on~me~window....looking out...and kissingyesterdaygood~bye...with two fingers upand lips pursed,cantelope orange....She was glad to go...wrists warmed byclose callsand wrapped in late night fingerless crochet...Glad to leave in peace....10 by 12 original collage. Five archival prints of orignal

Toss That Book!

It's funny how some people simply must finish a book once they've started it--no matter how much they hate it.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks life is way too short to spend reading books I don't like simply because I made the mistake of starting them. This article quotes many people who feel the same way. "Divorce That Book"--I like that. Frankly, it's not even that much trouble, is it? It's more like dating someone and finding out you're incompatible. Nip that relationship in the bud, I say.

I made the mistake of slogging through a book that was going absolutely nowhere and doing absolutely nothing for me. It was SOMETHING HAPPENED by Joseph Heller. I bought it because I loved CATCH-22, but CATCH-22 it was not. And I kept waiting for this "something" to happen, but nothing happened until the very end. And it wasn't even worth the effort.

So, my advice is to save yourself the grief, use your limited time on earth more effectively and, when you've started a book that you just can't get into, take Dorothy Parker's advice to heart: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

'The Appeal' Has its Own Appeal Right Now

Review of THE APPEAL (Random House Audio 2008)
By guest blogger Star Lawrence
Author, John Grisham; read by Michael Beck

With the economy crumbling around our poor little ears (have you priced the cost of going bankrupt lately? Trust me—you can’t afford to even go broke!), this David & Goliath story has magnetic charm. I could not wait to get back to it and click on the CD player, despite the slow Southern accents and occasionally blah-blah-blah Grisham style.

David is a Ma & Pa law firm in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, representing some downtrodden and dead cancer victims in a nearby "Cancer County" that had been drinking death water poisoned by an evil chemical company run by a Wall Street billionaire (natch).

OK, corny setup. But wait.

As the poor lawyers are continually harassed by mustache-twisting bankers wanting to call in their loans, the evil billionaire uses brute spending power to stack the deck in the state supreme court, which will be ruling on the huge verdict the Hattiesburg jury delivered in favor of the cancer victims. Why not just get a sympathetic justice elected and dump the woman who still had in interest in the "little guy"?

Of course, they find a family-first type who goes to church a few times a week and push him out there.

But what I wanted to know was—will the rich keep getting richer? See? I am a romantic!

I won't tell you, although I did not love the deus ex machina Grisham came up with at the end. Ever feel like calling an author and yelling?

The reader Michael Beck is a favorite of mine and does the accents well without overplaying them into Foghorn T. Leghorn territory.

Overall, this was a disk-flipper (my version of a page-turner). But my fists are still clenched. And you will see why.

Star Lawrence is a writer in Chandler, AZ, and can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com. She's a frequent contributor to The Book Grrl and her audio reviews also appear on http://chandlerazoo.blogspot.com.