Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

2

Every editing process has its periods of grind and periods of slack: times when the prose sharpens with every keystroke, and times when the entire mass must be left to ferment.

In a fermentation period this last weekend, I picked up Sara Gran’s new book, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead; I’m a few chapters in and finding it wonderful.  Hints of Dirk Gently, the Three Investigators, Philip Marlowe, and Haruki Murakami’s nameless protagonists – somehow they all meld into a book that (so far) is intense, inviting, and subtle.  I’m even sensing some of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy concern with the universe as a detective problem – but Gran communicates this concern by writing a compelling story with compelling characters, rather than a freshman-year philosophy class rumination.  Exciting to pick up a new book, by an author I don’t know, and find myself infatuated on page 20.

2 Responses to “Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead”

  1. Weronika Janczuk

    I must get better at recommending you things, it seems, even to someone so well read, as I LOVED THIS BOOK. Let me know what you think once you finish!

    reply

  2. max

    You certainly do need to get better at recommending me books! I’m about 100 pages into Claire Dewitt & The City of the Dead now, and loving it more the further I get. On top of everything else, Gran has a wonderful ear for dialogue.

    I’m often the one to recommend a book to my friends – so I have fewer people to recommend me things. Between work and writing, I have little enough time to read, and so I tend to be pretty conservative about new books, especially those still in hardcover. I’m suspicious of a lot of peoples’ taste, too, but evidence suggests we like the same kind of books, so – suggestions welcome! *Especially* for new stuff.

    reply

Leave a Reply