My essay Faces in the Crowd is now up at FEARNet. It tracks the evolution of King’s new short story collaboration with Stewart O’Nan, “A Face in the Crowd,” essentially from the moment King got the idea in 2004 until he threw it out into the audience eight years later, claiming he couldn’t figure out how to write it.
I finished Dare Me by Megan Abbott last night. What a great book. It’s about a bunch of high school cheerleaders who are lead by a girl who is essentially a sociopath. She sets her target on the new coach and all manner of mayhem ensues. There is a murder mystery, too, but that’s almost secondary. I was intrigued by the first-person narrative (not from the sociopath’s POV) and the way that certain things were completely off the teens’ radar. Adults weren’t exactly like the wonk-wonk-wonk parents on Charlie Brown, but sort of. And the athletes involved in the sport they were cheering weren’t on their radar either. Fascinating, compelling, and I’ll write more about it later.
I was going to go on to Justin Cronin’s The Twelve next, but then I got a copy of Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night so I decided to tackle it first. It’s shorter and it comes out first. I’ll save The Twelve for the Labor Day weekend.
I realize now that I picked up The Closer somewhere in the first season. All of the Season 2 episodes I’ve seen in the past few days are familiar. The best one is the Flynn/Provenza caper when they find a body while on their way to see a baseball game (they have skybox seats). They decide to leave it there until after the game (Provenza’s call), but when they get back, the body is gone. Funny stuff.
I’m hanging in with Major Case, but the subplot involving Raydor and the boy who has been left in her custody is a big distraction. Both characters are annoying, so putting them together in the same house is (annoying)². I’m also sticking with The L.A. Complex, but this week’s episode didn’t do much for me. Just about everyone was annoying.
Another good episode of Covert Affairs this week. Nice scenes between Augie and his therapist as he shows her how he navigates the streets, and good initiative by Annie. I was surprised by her decision to transfer away from Joan. She’s showing all manner of initiative these days.
Mid-season finale of Burn Notice tonight. Expect explosions.