In Mona Simpson's 'Casebook,' A Holden Caulfield For Our Time
Casebook is filled with the quirky and succinct descriptions for which Simpson's writing is justly celebrated, in works such as her first novel, Anywhere But Here, and in subsequent ones such as A Regular Guy and Off Keck Road. Her verbs are delicious: "She swacked open black garbage bags and made me twisty them and haul them to her car," Miles says of his mother.
I'm not crazy about the introductory framing device that Simpson uses for the novel — Miles and his pal have written a book about their sleuthing, and Casebook allegedly is the rough draft. And sometimes Miles' snooping seems outlandish and implausible, as if it's a species of magical realism, not intended to be taken as reality. But the story captivates either way.
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