Sugar House (2000) by Laura Lippman

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Sugar House (2000)

by Laura Lippman

Baltimore, Maryland

Maryland: 1/9

   After slogging through over 100 novels set in New York State I'm positively giddy at the prospect of dispensing with Delaware in 3 books and Maryland in 9.   Coincidentally I was reading On Such a Full Sea (2014) by Chang Rae Lee at the same time I was reading Sugar House a so-called "Tess Monaghan" mystery by Baltimore based author Laura Lippman.  On Such a Full Sea is a concrete example of a book that could have substituted for yet another lady detective novel- On Such a Full Sea is squarely set in a (post-apocalyptic) Baltimore, called B-more for the Chinese descended settlers.  Sea has ample description of the Maryland landscape and is firmly anchored in its location.  At the same time, I get what editor Susan Straight is trying to do here, platforming female voices in a genre that goes through periods of guy-heavy narratives. 

  Lippman is married to fellow writer David Simon (he did The Wire)- they both worked in newspapers, once upon a time. This book isn't particularly concerned with the "urban areas in decline" thesis, it's more like a work-a-day detective novel that has a well-observed locale.  The Domino Sugars sign, in particular, is referenced frequently.  The reader is also treated to a couple of trips to colorful Philadelphia- which for some reason has been lumped with the Appalachians and southwestern Midwest, for the purposes of the 1,001 Novels project.

An elegant, lovely novel-in-stories, set in 1950s America, when a young boy, after the loss of brother and father, finds solace in the complicated faith of his mother, while realizing his own gay identity.