This week, my hometown of Redding, CA was hit with a devestating forest fire. The past few days have shown the true character, good and bad, of many local businesses and individuals. As of today, the Carr Fire has displaced over 30,000 residents, burned over 80,000 acres, and destroyed at least 500 structures in our small rural town. We have banded together as a community, and I am lucky enough that my home is safe and so are the homes of my families and friends. My heart goes out to the thousands who weren't as lucky as my loved ones.
In times of high tension and stress, it's so hard for me to relax. Watching TV is out of the question, and focusing on reading is quite difficult. Since I couldn't sit still on Friday night, and following the fire updates was compounding my anxiety, I decided to pick up a paper book in case the predicted rolling blackouts happened, since I wanted to maintain my charge on my iPad and phone. I have a shelf of unread hardcover books that were just waiting for me, so I selected Laura Lippman's "Sunburn", a book I have been wanting to read for a while.
If you're not familiar with Lippman's works, do yourself a favor and get thee to Amazon immediately. The blurbs on the back of her books hail her as an observant crime writer with a strong noir feel - and that is a very accurate description. She has an incredible writing style that makes it so hard to put her books down. Some of my favorites are linked below.
So far, Sunburn is not disappointing me, even though I had built my expectations far too high (which sometimes results in me being very let down). I will openly admit that I am still not sure where the story is headed, but I truly enjoy that feeling. I don't like predictability in anything in my life - books, food, men. So far, we've met "Polly", who has landed in the small town of Belleville, Delaware with no possessions and no plan. This is because, as Pauline, she has abandoned her no-good husband with their young daughter while on a seaside vacation. She is written as an opportunist who has the ability to compartmentalize her emotions and manipulate men in order to get what she wants, but I get a different sense of her in the chapters that are written from her point of view. The other chapters are written from the points of view of her husband, Gregg, who already had a dim view of his wife before she abandoned him with a toddler; Sue, a lesbian PI that Gregg has hired to find Pauline; and Adam, a PI who is tracking Pauline but we don't yet know why, or for whom. However, Adam has started an ill-advised affair with Pauline as Polly, though she has not shown any indication that she knows he's following her. I am on Chapter 13 and cannot wait until the death happens, as I cannot even predict who it will be at this point!
I am going to spend my evening unwinding and delving further into the story, stay tuned for my full review!
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