Last two of the year:
Fleishman is in Trouble, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner: I read that the original title for this was Schrodinger’s Marriage, and for a second I thought “That’s much better!” before just as instantly deciding it wasn’t. It’s more clever, maybe, but less memorable, and less clever than it would be if the term hadn’t already been appropriated in clever ways elsewhere. I enjoyed this thoroughly, especially the way the narration crept in from background to foreground. I did keep wondering if the reader was intended to be startled by/to mock Fleishman for categorizing his $230,000 salary as decent-but-not-wealthy or…if it was intended to be viewed as a reasonable opinion?
Lady in the Lake, by Laura Lippman: I think I read this over the course of 24 hours – it’s hyper engaging and perfectly paced, and completely pulls off the trick of being told in 20 different first-person perspectives (as well as a close third that follows the main character through the novel). I’ve read a number of books that attempt multiple narrators and usually those that succeed are the books that limit themselves to three or four that recur – although there are two (essentially) recurring voices in Lady in the Lake (the protagonist and the titular Lady), no one else who narrates a chapter ever resurfaces, but the story fits together perfectly. The 1960s setting and protagonist who starts out at a newspaper at age 37 were extra bonuses.
