bwehrmeyer3c94

I read this novel years ago in French. I had no memories of the plot but remembered the style, the wit, the finesse of the author. Amanda Cross is as sharp as I remembered. Kate Fansler still interesting and fun in a upper class, intello way. The nice things : the quotes from others detectives series like Lord Peter Wimsley, mentioned twice at least, and since it's James Joyce lots of Ulysses and Dubliners. In this novel, Kate ends up in the country for the summer with her precocious nephew Leo, his tutor William a grad student hired by Kate, Emmet, another grad student also hired by Kate to go thru the letters of the American publisher of Joyce, Kate's boyfriend, Reed and two of her professors friends: one a young woman starting her career in academia and one on her sunset and not liking it one bit. This eclectic crew draws gossips and trouble as you might guess. Although written in the mid 60's, (you get some sense of the times, Kate drives a Bug), it's still vibrant with life and you don't feel out of sync at all. Amanda Cross aka Carolyn Gold Heilbrun was a highly renown academic, she committed suicide in 2003 according to her son she was not ill but felt she has completed her life.

2023-07-16 21:32