Wit's End

I really enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club, though I'd been reluctant to read it originally (embarrassing title). I hadn't intended to pick up Wit's End because it had gotten mediocre reviews, but I was on vacation and it was in paperback and I thought it would be a nice light read, which it more or less was.

Wit's End is about a damaged-by-life goddaughter reconnecting with her somewhat reclusive--though really just private--famous, murder mystery writing godmother. Addison is known for meticulously planning out the central murders in her many books by designing elaborate dollhouses of the crime. So, yeah, she's eccentric, and she's collected a few eccentrics around her: the beloved mailman of questionable mailman qualities (except discretion, I suppose); the formerly alchoholic, formerly homeless housekeeper; the housekeeper's perpetually angry and money-obsessed son; some devoted dogwalkers; two over-weight and yappy Dachshunds; a few stalkers; and now, her 29-year old orphaned goddaughter, Rima.

Fowler does some interesting things by trying to make this a meta-novel. It's hard to tell where and when Addison's books intrude on reality, especially since one of the characters in her most controversial book shares a name with Rima's recently deceased father. There's also fanfic to sort through, chatrooms, blogs by various members of the strange household (though not, thankfully, written by the dogs), and some nearby mysteries that involve both fictional and nonfictional versions of Rima's father and friends. Yep, it's a little confusing, but Fowler seems to be having fun with writing a pseudo-mystery about a mystery writer. All is not what it seems. Um, except when it's exactly as it seems.
The ending, while not exactly satisfying, is an ending well-suited to Fowler's "virtual reality" explorations. I'm glad it didn't end up with Addison being a murderer or Rima finding the love of her life (not that kind, anyway). I worried about that throughout.

The writing is kind of fun, too. Fowler notes all sorts of little funny moments, from the description of how awkward it would be for a fan to break into Addison's studio, to the housekeeper's winning of the Lord of The Ring Trivial Pursuit game and then washing the dishes with the ring of ultimate power on her hand, "thus proving herself extremely unclear on the concept of total world domination." Rima also tries to figure out how the two short little dogs ended up on her bed after a night of over-indulgence (on her part, not the dogs) at the local bar. Maybe one could have stood with its front paws on the bed frame while the other scaled its back in some unlikely dachshund Cirque de Soleil, but even then there weould be only one dog in her bed, not two. Nice, throw away image.

So, the book was okay. A decent vacation read, anyway, and I certainly seem to have taken a lot of notes for a book I didn't really love. I also had trouble moving on, afterward. The book made me want to read a good mystery or two. It wasn't as fun as The Jane Austen Book Club (which I recommend, if anyone has missed it at this point). I was surprised to notice that Fowler had two other books out as well. I'm curious what those are about, but I probably won't read them. After all, vacation is over now.