My Latest Grievance

Like all [a:Elinor Lipman 63681 Elinor Lipman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1482327276p2/63681.jpg] books, it took me a bit to get into it, but, as always, it was worth it. It has all the charm, classic dialog, and quirky characters that makes each of her books a winner.How strange it would be to grow up in the dorm of a private women's college in Boston. Frederica did that and her parents were just what you would expect: scholarly counselors who used the ‘how does that make you feel' technique like two pros. Frederica goes from favored campus mascot to intellectual, overly mature teen as one might expect. However, the arrival of her father's ex-wife (a little detail her usually open parents forgot to mention) stirs up their up-to-this-point unflappable college life. And what a character Miss Laura Lee French turns out to be. One never quite knows if she is a blatant liar or just the most open person that ever existed. She manages to turn the campus upside down in a matter of months, taking Frederica, her parents, and the entire population of Dewing College for a wild ride.For me, it wasn't so much what happened, but how the characters reacted that tickled me and kept me reading. From Laura Lee's best friend priest (and what's really going on there?) to the illicit affair that leads to Frederica's father almost losing his job, it's a total romp.