Amy (Belatedly) Reads the Week (of August 3rd, 2008)

I am on the verge of graduation, Gentle Reader, so this week has been occupied with cleaning house for the impending Family Visit. Also, too, getting back into the non-teaching groove of things, only to find that destroyed a few mere weeks from now, when I return to the teaching trenches.

But I have been reading, Friends. I have finally (!) finished Tana French's delightful, engaging, heartbreaking, stunning novel, The Likeness, a sequel to her Edgar winning first novel, In the Woods. Constant readers may remember that This Humble Author finished French's first novel while on vacation earlier in July, and eagerly anticipated the release of her follow-up. The Likeness is stunning, Friends, truly. There are few other words. I will endeavor, after graduation, to write a more complicated review, but until then, let me say that French is a gifted and wonderful writer, both of prose style and of plot. If forced to compare her to Other Writers--an activity I find draining and complicated, but occasionally fun, I would liken her novels to a cross between Raymond Chandler and Flannery O'Connor: the same sense of pacing, of will, of drive, with a superb backdrop of place, atmosphere, and idea. Add in a slight dash of Stephen King and Jane Austen claustrophobia of social scene, just for good measure, and you have Ms. French.

I strongly urge you, Gentle Reader, to pick up her books forthwith.