Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn is the next new great writer, apparently - at least, her newest book, Gone Girl, has gotten saturation coverage in Entertainment Weekly and either Time or Newsweek.  I also read the Atlantic and the New Yorker, so it might be in one of those as well.  All I know is that any book getting the big publisher's push will have multiple reviews in the same week and I know it is meant to be the next big thing.

But in her case, it might be worth it.  I was pleased to see she had backlist - her breakout book is actually her third novel, so I picked up the earlier two (which are in paperback) to see if it would be worth my while to invest in the hardcover.  Writers generally get better, book by book, but if her first novel was horrible, I would guess that I would not like the third one either. 

Good news - Sharp Objects is brilliant.  It contains a murder mystery, but it surpasses that genre by also being a relationship novel and a psychological exploration of the main character.

Camille is the eldest in the family, the bastard child of a small town's princess.  Her mother, Adora, was the only child of the owner of the town's main employer - the owner of the pork processing plant.  Camille's grandparents died before she was two and her mother found a bland and inoffensive -- and also rich -- husband to rule with her.  In due time, they produced a half-sister, Marian.  After Marian's death, much later, they produced yet another daughter, Amma.

By that time, though, Camille had escaped the town in southern Missouri for Chicago, where she tries to build a career as a crime reporter.  But the murders of two pre-adolescent girls in her home town results in her editor sending her back into the unhealthy stew of memory.

This weekend, I plan to begin the next book, Dark Places, hoping it reads as well.
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Other books since the last entry include:  Vitals by Greg Bear (terrible); The Bourne Deception by Eric Van Lustbader (mediocre); and Treasure Island, Storm Surge, A Room Full of Bones, and The Beautiful Mystery.