utter randomonium

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman: 16-year-old Frederica Hatch lives in a tiny on-campus apartment with her professor parents who double as dorm-parents at a small women’s college near Boston. As the daughter of a sociologist and a psychologist, both die-hard unionists, not to mention being raised around hundreds of college girls, Frederica is a little different from most girls her age. Things start to get interesting when melodramatic Rockette-wannabe Laura Lee French shows up as dorm mother for another building. She is not only eccentric but also the first wife of Frederica’s father, a woman Frederica didn’t even know existed mere weeks before. I was reminded a bit of Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, but I suspect that has more to do with the protagonist being the daughter of a college professor than anything else. The story is funny and a little silly. I got a kick out of it. I particularly enjoyed the bitter and sarcastic Marietta.

Also posted on BookCrossing.