Plus, it brings back a protagonist type as which she, and perhaps she alone, excels: the deeply passive victim. Almost impossible, right? No! See her 2003 novel My Happy Life which I reissued in 2007. Truly amazing how a person otherwise marginalized as a sadsack possesses such narrative power.

So enjoyable to feel Lydia move me through her world with plot as well as with thought and character and pathos and the sublime. (Plus, I'm going through a horribly custody battle right now so I'm extra sensitive.)