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Articles by Elinor Lipman
Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen's Unsung Characters
Fair warning: To get the most enjoyment from each of the stories in LADIES IN WAITING, which has been published in honor of Jane Austen's 250th birthday, it will be more fun to have a good grasp of Austen’s novels. Nine authors --- Adriana Trigiani, Sarah MacLean, Eloisa James, Elinor Lipman, Audrey Bellezza, Karen Dukess, Emily Harding, Nikki Payne and Diana Quincy --- have taken on the fun assignment of bringing a secondary character from one of Austen’s books into a new, starring role.
LADIES IN WAITING
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again. After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father. Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents.
The Surprising Pleasures of Widowhood
Welcome back to “Ancient Wisdom,” our Sunday series in which writers over 70 tell us how they are aging gracefully. Last week, Mimi Swartz wrote about her love-hate relationship with plastic surgery. This week, Elinor Lipman, 74, recalls her late husband—and her life as a widow. My husband, Bob, died in 2009, 40 days after turning 60. It wasn’t sudden; he’d lost a three-year fight with two fatal and heartbreaking diseases, frontotemporal dementia and ALS.
Five Best: Satires
Excellent Women By Barbara Pym (1952) $13.75/Week $1.75/Week Includes unlimited digital access to The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s and Investor’s Business Daily $9.75/Week $1/Week Includes unlimited digital access to WSJ's unrivaled journalism. Already a subscriber? Sign in Already a subscriber? Sign In
Elinor Lipman’s new novel is all comfort and joy
With a title like "Every Tom, Dick & Harry," it's easy to assume that Emma Lewis, the 32-year-old protagonist of Elinor Lipman's new book, is about to go on a lot of dates. She's single, attractive, quick-witted and kindhearted. But that's not the kind of romance Lipman has written.
EVERY TOM DICK HARRY by Elinor Lipman Read by Piper Goodeve | Audiobook Review | AudioFile Magazine
Piper Goodeve's energetic narration is a perfect match for this funny and charming story, making this a perfectly paced listen. Emma takes over her parents' estate-sale business and lands their biggest client to date. The grand house and its furnishings are overshadowed by its reputation: a previous bed-and-breakfast that also offered services of ill repute. Emma, unaware of the property's history, faces challenges from the proud owners at every step.
Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, February 28, 2025
Among the noteworthy reading recommendations in this week's issue, we spotlight Markus Zusak's moving and vulnerable memoir, Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth), about the canine members of his family and the challenge of writing about them. In the "lighthearted, humor-filled" Change of Heart, romance author Falon Ballard fabricates a whimsical small town where true love is crucial for one single-minded lawyer to get home to Manhattan. And YA author Emily J.
The Glimmer of an Idea: A Guest Post by Elinor Lipman
The Glimmer of an Idea: A Guest Post by Elinor Lipman Big-hearted and hilarious, Every Tom, Dick & Harry is a dazzling story chronicling one woman’s whirlwind journey through inheriting her family’s real estate business — and ruffling more than a few feathers along the way. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Elinor Lipman on writing Every Tom, Dick & Harry. Hardcover $24.99 $27.99 Please enable javascript to add items to the cart.
Review: Latest Elinor Lipman comic novel is here to brighten your mood
Elinor Lipman is as reliable as Chex Mix or your favorite afghan. Her comic novels, often noted as the contemporary equivalent of Jane Austen classics, always hit the spot with warm characters, sharp dialogue, amusing situations and endings where everything works out for the people you hope it will work out for. The latest, "Every Tom, Dick and Harry," is no different. It's about clever Emma, who hasn't figured out how best to use her talents.
Yikes! Is She Really Wearing That in Public? | Members Only
If you're shocked by today's skimpy styles, reflect on the flirty fashions you wore when you were young. Dave Urban Facebook Twitter LinkedIn I’m noticing a lot of young women walking around New York somewhat naked. I tell myself not to judge the exposed midriffs and bellies, not to wonder, Did she look in the mirror? I want to think instead, How great that she’s … body positive. You don’t have to be a fashion analyst to see that what’s fine for the gym is fine for the street.
Great summer reads: hot takes for hot days from the University Book Store
Great summer reads: hot takes for hot days from the University Book Store Posted on by Ed Kromer. This entry was posted in Engaging Interests. Bookmark the permalink. Summer reading is a vibe. An escape. A passage to points unknown but utterly captivating. It delivers liberation from indoor confines and the limitations of genre. Feel like reading in a park, by a pool, at a beach, atop a mountain? Do it wherever. In the mood for a riveting thriller or steamy romance? As you wish.
The Perils of Using Real People in Your Prose
In our Craft Capsules series, authors reveal the personal and particular ways they approach the art of writing. This is no. 175. During the spring of 2020 I was working on what would become my thirteenth novel, Rachel to the Rescue (Mariner Books, 2021). The story is set in Washington, D.C., during the presidency of Donald Trump, and the protagonist works in the White House Office of Records Management (WHORM, truly), taping back together the documents that Trump chronically rips up.
Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, February 3, 2023
The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent A student seeking to reinvent herself at university discovers that the clique she thinks is her chance might be even more dangerous than the secret she is trying to outrun in The Things We Do to Our Friends, Heather Darwent's tantalizingly sinister debut thriller. Clare arrives alone in Edinburgh with a focus as much on escaping an incident in her past (not disclosed until late in the novel) as on her studies.
MS DEMEANOR by Elinor Lipman Read by Piper Goodeve
Piper Goodeve gives an appealing narration of this whimsical audiobook. Forty-something Jane loses her job as an attorney and then becomes a murder suspect. Her neighbor informs the police that she witnessed a romantic encounter between Jane and a younger colleague on the roof of Jane's New York City apartment building; then the neighbor is found dead, and Jane begins investigating the death. At the same time, Jane starts a catering service called Ms. Demeanor.
Elinor Lipman’s Frothy New Novel Has Serious Undertow
Book Review|Elinor Lipman’s Frothy New Novel Has Serious Undertow https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/books/review/elinor-lipman-ms-demeanor.html Fiction In “Ms. Demeanor,” the veteran author explores the ramifications of sexual freedom for a middle-aged woman. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Elinor Lipman is the author of 16 books of fiction and nonfiction.Credit...Michael Benabib Dec. 28, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET MS.
The Difficulty in Getting Over the Death of My Best Friend
My best friend died last year, the kind of best friend you speak to daily and share most waking thoughts with. Though we lived 200 miles apart, we faithfully reported by phone and email on the good, the bad, the personal and the professional, the funny and the annoying, the sons and the grandkids. I met Mameve (pronounced May-Meeve; named after two grandmothers, Mamie and Eva) 43 years ago in an adult fiction-writing workshop when I was 27 and she was 36.
What Can I Bring? Confessions and Recipes From a Too-Proud Cook
Is the upcoming dinner at my friend’s house going to be a potluck? No, it’s not. Then why do I always ask, “Can I bring anything?” I know what propels my question, and the answer is threefold. 1. It just popped out due to unchecked good manners. 2. Self-interest. What if the host’s food is — forgive me — not so great? At least I’ll have my own contribution. 3. Ego gratification, hoping a guest will ask, “This scrumptious thing? Who brought it?” “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” Ecclesiastes warns.
With Whisk in Hand, I Found Love Later in Life
Until my post-widowed dating life began at 60, I’d cooked nearly every night for my husband and son. I had dinner parties and folders full of recipes. I owned a fish poacher and a tortilla press. So why didn’t I cook for potential beau Jonathan after we met on Match.com? For months there was only a fallow period of suboptimal dating that didn’t amount to a relationship. I called it a no-mance and called him my friend without benefits — a status that was his choice, not mine. I tried.
Review | Elinor Lipman’s ‘Rachel to the Rescue’ is a rom-com about a Trump staffer. Do we care enough to giggle?
Has the timing of a comic novel ever been more delicate? In 2020, Elinor Lipman learned that her fizzy rom-com set in the bowels of the Trump administration would be coming out too late to be successful. Despite the author’s stellar track record cranking out quirky romantic comedies since 1987, U.S. publishers believed Americans would no longer be interested in books about the 45th president by the time they could get “Rachel to the Rescue” to print.
Looking for a Funny Novel Set in Washington, D.C.? Start here.
Fiction July 13, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET RACHEL TO THE RESCUE By Elinor Lipman During my five years as a presidential stenographer, I would escape the inherent stress of the White House by frequenting an upscale consignment shop in Dupont Circle. Mindlessly combing through the racks of tired business wear, I found it impossible not to eavesdrop on the ladies who lunch.
Welcome to the Party of the Century. Leave Your Scruples at the Door.
Fiction Credit...Laura Edelbacher May 29, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET MALIBU RISING By Taylor Jenkins Reid Everyone in Malibu knows the four children of Mick Riva, a pop singer of Frank Sinatra-level fame and irresistible, movie-star good looks. He enters and leaves marriages with impunity, but who can blame a character whose “gravitational pull was such that he had to repel anyone he did not wish to actively attract”?
Review: Rachel to the Rescue by Elinor Lipman (Kritters Ramblings)
Rachel to the Rescue by Elinor Lipman Pages: 304 Format: eARC Buy the Book: Amazon Goodreads: Rachel Klein is sacked from her job at the White House after she sends an email criticizing Donald Trump. As she is escorted off the premises she is hit by a speeding car, driven by what the press will discreetly cal "a personal friend of the President." Does that explain the flowers, the get-well wishes at a press briefing, the hush money offered by a lawyer at her hospital bedside?
Poem of the Week: 'Paddy Dies' by Stewart Parker (1941-1988)
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor @stevewh16944270 8:17 AM 19th January 2021 arts Paddy Dies Paddy dies: you never knew him. A deaf hunchback in a home for the old. Deafness drew the blind of his soul. Nobody knew him. Nobody knew him. A wild animal in him reared Up one night, I saw his eyes And for three days he disappeared They found him sleeping in a pig-sty. I wonder if sixty years ago He slept tender in a girl’s breasts? He seems to sleep hard now. His bony umbrella collapsed at last.
State Of The Union: Rachel To The Rescue By Elinor Lipman
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor 11:41 AM 28th December 2020 arts Donald J. Trump’s failure to accept the outcome of the most fairly and judiciously executed election in US history might one day be his albatross – his resolute deafness to the clamour of probity is the indignation of a spoilt child who is overfond of wearing the emperor’s new clothes.
Poem Of The Week: 'The Magi' By W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor 6:02 PM 21st December 2020 arts The Magi Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye, In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones, And all their helms of silver hovering side by side, And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more, Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied, The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
Poem Of The Week: 'The Dipper' By Kathleen Jamie
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor 5:52 PM 12th December 2020 arts The Dipper It was winter, near freezing, I'd walked through a forest of firs when I saw issue out of the waterfall a solitary bird. It lit on a damp rock, and, as water swept stupidly on, wrung from its own throat supple, undammable song. It isn't mine to give. I can't coax this bird to my hand that knows the depth of the river yet sings of it on land.
Poem Of The Week: 'Snowdrop' By Ted Hughes
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor 7:20 PM 22nd November 2020 arts Snowdrop Now is the globe shrunk tight Round the mouse’s dulled wintering heart. Weasel and crow, as if moulded in brass, Move through an outer darkness Not in their right minds, With the other deaths. She, too, pursues her ends, Brutal as the stars of this month, Her pale head heavy as metal.
Poem Of The Week: 'Everything Is Going To Be All Right' By Derek Mahon
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor 12:59 PM 2nd February 2020 arts Everything Is Going to Be All Right How should I not be glad to contemplate the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window and a high tide reflected on the ceiling? There will be dying, there will be dying, but there is no need to go into that. The poems flow from the hand unbidden and the hidden source is the watchful heart. The sun rises in spite of everything and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
A Very Nice Man | Eye Books
We present a (very) short story from Paul Bassett Davies’ new collection, The Glade And Other Stories. If you pre-order Paul’s forthcoming novel Please Do Not Ask for Mercy as a Refusal Often Offends, we’ll send you a free ebook of The Glade by email. Full details are at the end of the story A Very Nice Man The woman opposite me was crying. I’d been engrossed in my book since the train had left Bristol but when I heard her snuffling I glanced up.
Poem Of The Week: ‘Epitaph On A Tyrant’ By W. H. Auden
Steve Whitaker Literary Editor @stevewh16944270 12:38 PM 30th August 2019 arts There may, or may not, be a new and pressing lesson, here, for readers of Auden’s poetry. That we sometimes fill political vacuums with a less desirable alternative to the recently deposed is a situation arrived at either by systemic inertia, or by an act of collective will, or both; think Weimar Germany and the advent of National Socialism.
Camp Austen
My Life as an Accidental Jane Austen Superfan Narrated by: Ted Scheinman Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins 4.1 out of 5 stars 4.1 (7 ratings) 1 title per month from Audible’s entire catalog of best sellers, and new releases. Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. You will get an email reminder before your trial ends. Your Premium Plus plan is $14.95 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
In This New Caper Novel, a Yearbook Reveals Family Secrets
Fiction Feb. 19, 2019 GOOD RIDDANCE By Elinor Lipman Elinor Lipman’s latest novel opens with its heroine, Daphne Maritch, decluttering the small Manhattan apartment she’s moved into after a brief, bad marriage. Following advice from a magazine article, she holds an item left to her by her mother, June, to her chest to determine whether it inspires joy. It’s a 1968 yearbook from Pickering High School in New Hampshire, where her mother taught English.
Locally inspired book leaves reviewer with mixed feelings
“Good Riddance” By Elinor Lipman Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 304 pages, $25 What happens when a writer lays the groundwork for a story and then bulldozes the foundation? About halfway through Elinor Lipman’s latest comic novel, “Good Riddance,” a central conceit suddenly disappears when an object that fueled tension between two main characters is destroyed. Does it matter? Lipman tells you straight up in her title.
Good Riddance | Bookreporter.com
What a charming, benevolent novel this is. Beyond a few neurotic narcissists, there’s not a true villain in sight. Still, author Elinor Lipman has managed to contrive a credible narrative, filled with plot twists that miraculously resolve themselves by the end of this bonbon of a book. Daphne Maritch is a recent divorcée who is trying to get her life back together after discovering her husband’s infidelities.
Good Riddance | HMH Books
1 The Grateful Class of ’68 For a few weeks after my mother’s death, I was in possession of the painstakingly annotated high school year-book that had been dedicated to her by the grateful class of 1968. Yes, she’d been their English teacher and yearbook advisor, but that didn’t explain her obsessive collecting of signatures and tributes next to every senior’s photo.
Book Bag: ‘Good Riddance’ by Elinor Lipman; ‘The Joke’s on Me’ by Chris O’Carroll
GOOD RIDDANCE By Elinor Lipman Houghton Mifflin Harcourt elinorlipman.com A high-school yearbook as the basis of a novel? Trust Elinor Lipman, she of the droll wit and snappy dialogue, to find a way to make it work. Lipman, the former Northampton writer who now lives in New York City, builds her new book, “Good Riddance,” around Daphne Maritch, a thirty-something woman living in Manhattan and mourning the recent loss of her mother, June.
Helen Simpson’s Stories Explore Trepidations About Turning 50
If it were easy to explain what Helen Simpson can do with a story, more writers would be fashioning such jewels. It’s along these lines: Start with the ostensible foreground — perhaps a lunch or a visit from a svelte refrigerator repairman or a recipe for lemon drizzle cake — then introduce the emotional hobgoblins that throw the characters rewardingly off-kilter.
Book Bag: “On Turpentine Lane” by Elinor Lipman; “Walking to Listen” by Andrew Forsthoefel
Turpentine Lane might not have the most appealing name, but Faith Frankel finds the little bungalow for sale there full of charm: two bedrooms, a claw-foot tub in the bathroom, and a carved pineapple newel post on the staircase. Best of all is the bargain-basement price, including the seller’s promise to pay for all needed repairs.
Meredith Maran chronicles her late life shift in "The New Old Me"
On first reading of Meredith Maran’s new memoir, I silently implored her to buck up and stop the waterworks. But I snapped out of that judgmental mode for the common sense reasons that “The New Old Me: My Late Life Reinvention” (Blue Rider, $27, 288 pages) is so well-written and smart, and because the author herself, in the throes of an unwanted divorce, pleads guilty to being a needy, weepy bundle.
In love as in real estate - The Buffalo News
Starting a new romantic relationship is not unlike buying an older home. On the surface, all might seem fine. Lots of personality, charming features, solid foundation and all that. But upon closer inspection, you might discover that you have more of a fixer-upper than you bargained for. Also, a previously lived-in abode might possess a less-than-savory history that will carry over when you occupy it.
On Turpentine Lane
There are times when a reader wants an enigma of a novel filled with brooding characters and grisly crimes. But when there's already too much darkness in the world and a cheering respite is in order, we can all be glad for Elinor Lipman's , a romantic comedy with just enough sly wit to keep it from turning sugary. Thirty-two-year-old Faith Frankel has decided to buy a charming little two-bedroom fixer-upper in a Massachusetts suburb without consulting her fiancé.
A Romantic Comedy With Pleasingly Ridiculous Characters
Faith Frankel may have made a few mistakes. She left Brooklyn for Everton, Mass., and “what appeared to be a stress-free job” in stewardship at her alma mater, the Everton Country Day school, but now her knucklehead boss has rather casually accused her of misappropriating funds.
Derek Thompson in conversation with A.O. Scott
Derek Thompson uncovers the hidden psychology of why we like what we like and reveals the economics of cultural markets. In Hit Makers, he shows quality is insufficient for success, nobody has "good taste" and some of the most popular products were one bad break away from failure. It may be a new world, but there are some enduring truths to what audiences and consumers want.Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Books can be purchased after signing.
Be bold: the secret of getting your show onto a Cambridge stage
This term will be my last on the ADC/Corpus Playroom show selection committee, and this piece is both an insight into one of the perhaps lesser-known aspects of Cambridge theatre, and also something of a plea: a plea for more. While I feel privileged to have seen so many great shows, as a final farewell I am urging YOU, fellow students, to apply with something a little different. The seasons we put together have to have to appeal to audiences as well as being thematically and tonally balanced.
Why We Adored Patty Dann’s ‘Butterfly Hours’
I adored Patty Dann’s “The Butterfly Hours: Transforming Memories into Memoir.” It’s a memoir that is poignant, wry and modestly profound all at once. Add to that fascinating glimpses into the lives that the author’s students wrote about in the class she’s been teaching for 20-plus years at the West Side YMCA. I vowed upon finishing this lovely, inspiring book to buy in multiples and send to those I know who have a story to tell. And so far I have. - Elinor Lipman
6 New Poems For Trump’s America
In which our Jewish poet laureate opines about the dawning Trump era — in verse. #1 You too can own Ivanka’s dress! It’s pink, it’s svelte, it screams success Not sewn on 7th Avenue But made in China just for you. #2 Ribbon cuttings, they’ll be grand! This POTUS won’t disown his brand. “Trump” in gold makes him verklempt-y Or maybe just that suites are empty. #3 Sheriff’s symbol? That’s a laugh. My People won’t forget that gaffe. Such ignorance about those stars. On sleeves, on coats, in railroad cars.
Book review: Maria Semple is back with another loopy, darkly comic novel
Ahhh, how great to be back in Seattle, to the most precious and lampoonable version of that city as seen through the worried eyes of Eleanor Flood, the narrator and antiheroine of Maria Semple’s inventive third novel, “Today Will Be Different.” Eleanor is chronically disappointed in herself, in her versions of wife- and motherhood; in her degrees of kindness, friendship, organization, pet ownership and yoga attendance.
Maria Semple is back with another loopy, darkly comic novel
Ahhh, how great to be back in Seattle, to the most precious and lampoonable version of that city as seen through the worried eyes of Eleanor Flood, the narrator and antiheroine of Maria Semple’s inventive third novel, “Today Will Be Different.” Eleanor is chronically disappointed in herself, in her versions of wife- and motherhood; in her degrees of kindness, friendship, organization, pet ownership and yoga attendance.
I’ll Have What She Had: A Friend’s Competitive Memoir About Nora Ephron (Published 2016)
Nonfiction Nora Ephron, July 2009.Credit...Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Sept. 6, 2016 SHE MADE ME LAUGH My Friend Nora Ephron By Richard Cohen 299 pp. Simon & Schuster. $27. Who in the course of a celebrity life hasn’t been observed behaving badly? Name your offender, but ouch, please not the late, beloved Nora Ephron. If you’re among those who saw only the good and the brilliant in her work and admired the bumps in her road, so artfully reported, Richard Cohen would like to burst your bubble.
Taking a Break for Friendship (Published 2015)
At 59, I was a new widow writing a novel about a new widow who was socially maladroit. When her story started to stagnate, I knew I had to get her out of the house. Me, too. I signed us both up for Match.com. Dates followed. Not all were horrible, but the reporter in me liked the worst ones for their anecdotal value.
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