Elinor Lipman is the writer Julia Glass described as “one of the last urbane romantics."
She's written 10 novels about loving relationships of one kind or another, mostly set in New York City, where she lives part time.
Her characters are city smart. Their situations can make you grin because you've been there. I loved The Family Man and The Ladies' Man.
2013 is a good year for Lipman, who has two new books out, including a book of essays, I Can't Complain.
Don’t be put off by essays, by the way. These are short and wise, from a biting piece about author behavior at lit fests, to her defense of mixed marriages after her novel The Inn at Lake Devine was criticized.
Her essay "Ego Boundaries" made me sit up. She writes that in "her less confident youth," she wore clothes that her fashion-conscious husband approved. "I didn't have then what I've developed over many decades of marriage: the ability to overrule him and find a cure for, at least in this context, that wifely condition, the disease to please." (p. 117-18). Can you relate?
In Lipman's other book out this year, The View from Penthouse B, two sisters of a certain age, one just divorced and the other recently widowed, share an apartment. One cautiously considers dating for the first time since high school. They need income and take in a young gay renter who helps with their online dating websites. The book is lovable and light.
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