If a writer really wants to sell a lot of books, the surest route is to establish themselves as a brand, and then deliver exactly what readers expect, over and over again.
There can be some variety. Not every James Patterson or Stephen King or Colleen Hoover book is exactly alike, but they share such similar DNA that a reader knows what they’re getting.
This is not the case when I pick up each new book by one of my favorite working writers, J. Robert Lennon. Each new reading experience has some element of surprise.
Lennon’s most recent book is “Hard Girls,” which is billed as a crime novel, and it is that, but it’s also a family story, a coming-of-age novel and maybe even has a hint of satire about the crime novel genre.
It tells the story of Jane and Lila Pool, fraternal twin sisters raised by an absent-minded professor and a dynamic, but frequently absent mother who is maybe off having affairs, or is a spy, or something else entirely. The novel alternates between Jane and Lila as teens, essentially raising themselves, ultimately getting into real trouble, and Jane and Lila as adults, Jane with a husband and young daughter, trying to put her youthful trouble behind her.
But after years of no contact, Lila has summoned Jane using a spy code of their own invention from childhood. Lila says she may know where their missing mother is. Jane cannot resist the pull of maybe finding out the truth.
The big-picture plot of the novel unspools to the expectations of the genre as Lila and Jane reconnect and go in search of their mother, encountering obstacles along the way that Lila’s expertise as a computer hacker and all-around fixer allow them to navigate. But this half of the story is enhanced by the story of the past leading up to why Lila and Jane once had to flee home as teens and why Jane spent time in jail.
The result is unlike any other crime novel I’ve read, satisfying both in terms of its action and intrigue, while also giving us greater depth of insight into the interior lives of these characters.
“Hard Girls” is a serious departure from Lennon’s previous novel, “Subdivision” which involves a character checking into a strange inn and quickly falling into surreal adventures that seem to be inspired by some mix of Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud. “Subdivision” is strange in the best way.
I really can’t emphasize the sheer variety of Lennon’s work.
One of his early novels, “The Funnies” is a straightforward family novel about a man who inherits his father’s famous comic strip — imagine the child of Charles Schulz continuing Peanuts — through which he comes to terms with his childhood and his aspirations around art.
“Castle” is a work of gothic horror about a man who lives in a dilapidated house in the woods that makes your heart pound like you’re reading an Edgar Allen Poe story for the first time.
“Mailman” is a dark comedy about the titular character that puts us so deep into his mind you wonder if there’s a way out.
“Happyland” is loosely based on the life of the creator of the American Girl dolls and her attempt to remake an upstate New York town into a tourist destination.
There’s another half-dozen books, all of them different from each other. I recommend diving into any of them.
But this string of not knowing what I’m getting is about to end. There’s a sequel to “Hard Girls,” where Lila and Jane start collaborating on capers, coming next year. I’m already looking forward to it.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Sicilian Method” by Andrea Camilleri
2. “Blue Ruin” by Hari Kunzru
3. “Ruthie Fear” by Maxim Loskutoff
4. “Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips
5. “I Cheerfully Refuse” by Leif Enger
— Ed E., Saint Charles
I think Ed may find some reading pleasure in Colm Tóibín’s immigrant novel, “Brooklyn.”
1. “Familiaris” by David Wroblewski
2. “Real Americans” by Rachel Khong
3. “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach
4. “You Are Here” by David Nicholls
5. “Young Jane Young” by Gabrielle Zevin
— Dale R., Chicago
For Dale, Ron Rash’s haunting and tense, “The Caretaker.”
1. “Only the Beautiful” by Susan Meissner
2. “The Ghost Keeper” by Natalie Morrill
3. “Tattoos on the Heart” by Gregory Boyle
4. “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith
5. “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano
— Christine H., Chesterton, Indiana
I’m hoping that Christine has not yet encountered Louise Penny’s “Inspector Gamache” series, which starts with “Still Life.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
