I had been creating villains on the page for about seven years when I finally became one. And I deserved it. My daughter was ten days old the first time I was asked if I were her grandmother.
Laura Lippman's first job in journalism was a rookie reporter in Waco, Texas. Two decades later she left her first husband, quit the newspaper business, and became a full time novelist.
Her fiction has always cantered on complicated women, paying unique attention to the intricacies of their flaws, their vulnerability, and their empowerment. Now, finally, Lippman has turned her gimlet eye on a new subject: herself.
In this, her first collection of essays, Lippman gives us a brilliant, candid portrait of an unapologetically flawed life. Childhood, friendships, influences, becoming a mother in later life - Lippman's inspiring life stories are at once specific and universal.
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Paradox: How does one write about one's distaste for the first person pronoun without using it? INTRODUCTION, THE ACCIDENTAL ESSAYIST
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(@FaberBooks, 4 August 2020, ebook, 293 pages, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I've only read a couple of the author's books so reading some nonfiction isn't an obvious choice. I'm trying to read more nonfiction this year, at least one title a month and have enjoyed essays in the past. I decided to read this because I loved the title; Villainesses are fun and some much more interesting than nice people. I consider it a compliment to be called a Bitch, Villainess or the like. I'm a complicated, sort of messy and dysfunction person. I like people who share these qualities. I really enjoyed these essays which are wide-ranging covering subjects such as childhood, growing up, motherhood, relationships from the POV of a complex, flawed life. This is an entertaining collection. I especially enjoyed Game of Chrones, My Father's Bar, My Life as a Villainess and My Brilliant Friend.
