The Dearly Departed by Elinor Lipman

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Author: Elinor Lipman
• Title: The Dearly Departed
• Publisher: ‎ Random House, Inc.; First Edition (June 12, 2001)
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover – 269 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0679463127
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0679463122
• Item Weight: ‎ 1.25 pounds
• Dimensions: ‎ 6.35 x 1.10 x 9.53 inches
• Book Condition: New / Like New – Very Good (may show some minimal discoloration on page edges)
• Dust Jacket Condition: Excellent
• Edition: First Edition

Synopsis:

Everyone in King George, New Hampshire, loved Margaret Batten, part-time amateur actress, full-time wallflower, and single mother to a now-distant daughter, Sunny. But accidents happen. The death of Margaret, side by side with her putative fiancé, brings Sunny back to the scene of her unhappy adolescence, to the community that remembers her solely, nervously, as "the girl who golfed."

Reentry is to be dreaded; there's no hiding in a town with one diner, one doctor, one stop sign, one motel. Yet allies surface: The country club opens its doors to its former Orphan Annie caddie. High school classmates, even the tormenters, have grown up nicely, matured in unforeseen and gratifying ways.

Maybe, Sunny begins to think, she wasn't as beleaguered as she felt she was; maybe her mother's life was richer than anyone suspected; and maybe the man at the funeral-the one with her face, her flyaway hair, her golf swing-is the half-brother she doesn't know she needs.

Elinor Lipman writes with the wry authority of a latter-day Jane Austen. The Dearly Departed is another perfect blend of social comedy, pointed wit, and precise pacing from our last urbane romantic.

About the Author:

Elinor Lipman is the award-winning author of 16 books of fiction and nonfiction including "The Inn at Lake Devine," "Isabel's Bed," "On Turpentine Lane," "Good Riddance," "I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays," “Rachel to the Rescue,” and most recently, "Ms. Demeanor." Her first novel, "Then She Found Me," became a 2008 feature film, directed by and starring Helen Hunt, with Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick.

She was the 2011-12 Elizabeth Drew professor of creative writing at Smith College, and winner of the New England Bookseller Award and the Paterson Fiction Prize. Her book reviews and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe and New York Times, including two "Modern Love" essays.