-Kate Christensen, The Great Man
Like the last person to arrive at a really good party, I am devouring Christensen’s latest this week (which recently won the Pen/Faulkner). There are a few missteps in the writing, but in general, I am reading it very slowly, like a meal I don’t want to finish. Kate (a neighbor, with her Greenpoint Calyer St. location) writes with such conviction and steadiness that it overrides the finer points of the plot that don’t make sense (or the fact that there is no real plot). As a character study, specifically of older women entering the final phases of life, I’ve read no better this year.
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Please excuse me if the answer is obvious and the question is retarded, but what the hell ever happened to truth and beauty?
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