The daily Astorian., September 14, 2017, Page 23, Image 32

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 // 23
BOOK SHELF // GLIMPSE // WILDLIFE // POP CULTURE // WORDS // Q&A // FOOD // FUN
Crossword Answer
BOOKMONGER
Nancy Pearl’s debut novel – growing
into an imperfect marriage
No matter what else she
has ever done, Nancy Pearl
has achieved some kind of
immortality by serving as
the model for the best-sell-
ing Librarian Action Figure
(“With Amazing push-but-
ton Shushing Action!”).
Before she became an
action figure, Pearl was a
local phenom as director
of The Washington Center
for the Book, housed at the
Seattle Public Library. She
spearheaded inspired, out-
of-the-box programming to
introduce people to books
and authors.
Outside of the Puget
Sound region, people proba-
bly know her for her “Book
Lust” book series and TV
series that have introduced
readers to hundreds of
scintillating reads. And any-
one who listens to NPR’s
Morning Edition surely
recognizes Pearl’s voice,
her cadence, her propensity
to chuckle as she delivers
recommendations on a
vast array of books that are
“under the radar” but that
deserve to be read.
Now the shoe is on the
other foot. Nancy Pearl has
written a novel of her own,
and “George & Lizzie” is
fodder for the consideration
of other book reviewers and
of readers like you.
The novel begins with
a poem by Irish-American
poet Terence Winch that
presents a conflicted take on
sex and relationships.
Then you’ll jump to
Pearl’s introduction of
Lizzie, who is heartbroken,
stoned, and spending a
night at the Bowlarama with
her college roommate and
her roommate’s boyfriend.
“George & Lizzie”
By Nancy Pearl
Touchstone
288 pp
$25
When Lizzie haplessly un-
leashes a bowling ball that
bumps into the next lane
over, it ruins the heretofore
excellent game that the
fellow next to her had been
having. His name is George.
It’s a meet-cute, sort
of — although that gets left
behind for quite a while
as Pearl quickly backped-
als, detouring variously
into Lizzie’s emotionally
unavailable parents (who
are specialists in behavioral
psychology) and her compli-
cated childhood; George’s
fairly happy upbringing
and his reasons for going
into dentistry; Lizzie’s
adolescence, when her most
distinctive achievement
involved serially bedding
every single starter on the
high school football team;
and then her spectacular
quarter-long affair in college
with senior Jack McCona-
ghey, which involved lots of
poetry and sex, and that end-
ed when Jack graduated and
went away for the summer
and never came back — the
cause of Lizzie’s heartbreak.
Many pages (and, in
the book, several months)
later, George and Lizzie
begin dating, but Lizzie still
secretly dreams of find-
ing Jack again. Even after
she marries George, she
continues to wonder about
Jack and — this is in an era
before the internet – furtive-
ly visits libraries and combs
through phone directories
from around the United
States, looking for Jack’s
name.
This book has no chap-
ters. Instead, it is presented
in segments of varying
lengths — character sketch-
es, occasional lists, even
poetry — that one might
guess were rearranged
several times before Pearl
settled on their order. It is
slow-going at first, and it is
easy to become impatient
with complicated, confused,
depressed Lizzie.
But if you can stick with
it, this novel gradually be-
comes suffused with some-
thing ineffable, but abiding.
Is it self-forgiveness?
Detachment? Wisdom?
This is an interesting
debut.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, au-
thors and publishers of the
Pacific Northwest. Contact
her at bkmonger@nwlink.
com.
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