8/14/08

Between the Covers

Author blends fact and fiction in new novel

by Mary Burns

Wit’s End

By Karen Joy Fowler

(Putnam, $24.95)

Karen Joy Fowler is well known for her previous bestseller, “The Jane Austen Book Club,” but “Wit’s End” stands on its own.

In fact, the clever novel has its own everything: it’s a clever and enticing story about a mystery writer, her books, the characters in them and the people who obsess over them.

This book opens with a murder scene in a dollhouse. The fictional author, Addison Early, begins her writing only after having perfected this diorama as her concept of an outline for the new novel. In an early interview with Ms. Magazine, she states, “It seems only fair that I live with the people I’ve killed.”

But if Maxwell Lane is a character in Addison’s books, why is he the one getting fan mail? If Rima is Addison’s houseguest, why is she included in blogs about him? If people lock their diaries, why do they blog about their lives?

What is fact and what is fiction? Meander between them as you read this witty and engrossing novel. It’s all a mystery.

Mary Burns is owner of The BookWORKS, in downtown Marysville or online at www.marysvillebookworks.com.