Word: alther
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BEDROCK by Lisa Alther...
...persuade you not to read Lisa Alther's new novel, Bedrock? Since her first novel, Kinflicks, remains a fondly remembered artifact of the 1970s fusion of feminism and sexual freedom, a conventional negative review might convey the unintended message that this book is merely disappointing. But shouting from the rooftops "This is drivel!" would make me seem like the kind of insensitive male who is rooting for the Donald in the divorce dispute of the decade...
Ideally, an emblematic passage would provide the unambiguous evidence of awfulness. Alther's opening three words ("An ivory BMW") and her initial description of her middle-aged, open-married Manhattan heroine ("Clea Shawn was a sophisticated woman . . . she'd been in love so often that her heart felt like a sponge mop") are certainly warning signs. So is Alther's early summary of the passions that bind two women "Elke felt like a pile of nails being pulled to pieces by a magnet residing inside Clea." But such maladroit introductory passages could be dismissed as the ironic setup...
...burritos and Hawaiian pizza. The local postmistress steams open love letters, the Avon lady writes bad romance novels, and the sheriff makes pronouncements like "If you're not normal in this country, you get put in jail." Such rural New England cliches make Newhart seem like subtle satire, but Alther recycles them with such a tone of social superiority that the entire state of Vermont might sue for defamation...
Original Sins is an old-fashioned novel in the best sense of the term. It propels singular, interesting characters through a panoramic plot. Alther takes risks that sometimes fail. She is willing to sacrifice plausibility for a comic effect, to put her characters through paces that occasionally seem dictated rather than inevitable. But such lapses are more than offset by the novel's page-turning verve and intelligence. Alther knows that no theory or ideology can account for the cussed complexities of daily life. As Emily, Raymond and the rest stumble from one ism to another, their author both...