The Dearly Departed (2001) by Elinor Lipman

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

The Dearly Departed (2001) 

by Elinor Lipman

King George, New Hampshire (Rumney, New Hampshire)

New Hampshire: 13/13

    OK! Last New Hampshire book from the 1001 Novels: A Library of America project by Susan Straight.  Lipman has been publishing novels consistently since 1990.  Looking at her Amazon profile, she looks like a modest seller and she's never won an award.  She is consistently reviewed in the New York Times book review and unlike Jodi Picoult, she does seem to fit within the controversial parameters of "chick lit," and to fall within the time frame when that term was popular.  

  The Dearly Departed has some familiar elements:  A wayward would-be success returning home, tale between her (always her) proverbial legs as she learns lessons about life and love.  Here, the issue is the sudden death of her single mother at the hands of carbon monoxide poisoning.  She is found with her lover, his son turns out to be her brother, she goes on a date with the town cop.  Very low stakes fiction here, certainly not literature if Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult isn't literature. 

  Very glad to be finished with New Hampshire.