...on the way

"Let it die," should not, however, refer to my attitude toward this blog. Spring-break lassitude has delayed a post about Kyle Buckley's engaging The Laundromat Essay, about which more shortly. In the meantime, Daniel Handler, whom I noted in this space a while back, calls our attention to Mary Robison's new novel, One D.O.A., One on the Way, for which I'm grateful. Handler's description notes the less interesting aspects of the novel—

Eve is married to Adam (uh-huh), who has an "utterly identical" twin brother. Eve has some trouble telling them apart and also, occasionally, favors the one to whom she isn't married over the one to whom she is. They all hang out together in a mansion along with the twins' parents, who hate Eve; and Eve's sister, who is prone to crazed violence; and a young niece who asks too many questions

—though the plots of much of Robison's work, and particularly her novels, could be described in similarly preposterous terms; in any case, Robison's work is far less about plot than about language and tone. (In a 2003 review of Robison, I noted her "trademarks" as "sharp dialogue, one-liners, unerring details, exact—and often exacting—language.") Handler's other descriptions of the novel—"Eve...spends most of the book in her car, driving around, ranting out loud" or the book's "166 pages, 225 numbered segments"—recall Robison's best novel, Why Did I Ever, as Handler notes.

Handler suggests that in this new book Robison "doesn't expand her palette but widens her gaze," and claims that "Mary Robison's work has always felt like a glorious amenity, but One D.O.A., One on the Way is a powerful necessity." I certainly look forward to reading this novel.