Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I had a fun NOT Super Bowl party last Sunday with  great food and even greater conversation… about books seemingly overlooked by the critics.  My choice was Mona Simpson’s MY HOLLYWOOD – a novel I read many years ago that deals with the complex, often painful relationship between parents and the women who care for their children. Has Simpson written anything else you would recommend? 

Not a Fan of Football

Dear Not a Fan of Football, Recently I read CASEBOOK by Mona Simpson. In this novel, we meet Miles as a precocious nine year-old in 2000 who is curious about the comings and goings of the adults in his life. Using the primitive tools of the time, he is able to monitor his parents’ conversations – often with humorous misinterpretation. But soon he realizes things are not as he thought, and their divorce is imminent. Over the next ten years he continues his sleuthing – using the ever more sophisticated technology we all have at our disposal. There is a prevailing sense of mystery, drama, and comedy as we follow the lives of his parents, their new mates, his siblings and his friends - all set within the glitzy, grubby world of southern California.  An interesting look into family dynamics and dysfunction from a not always reliable but always sympathetic narrator….recommended!