Home is where the hurt is

Submitted by agraves on Wed, 08/22/2012 - 6:34pm

Sharp Objects is going to be a great comfort to anyone who thinks that they had a tough childhood.

Camille Preaker has fled the conflicts and constrictions of Wind Gap, Missouri and settled in Chicago. She works as a reporter for the Daily Post, the city's fourth-largest newspaper.

It is hard for anyone to leave the scars of a troubled youth behind them. In Camille's case, it is impossible. She has carved them into her own body.

Her editor, Frank Curry, is aware that his reporter's balance beam is too high off the ground for her to survive a fall, but, when the paper gets a chance to scoop the competition on an unfolding story in Camille's hometown, he convinces her that she can not only advance her career, she may be able to face down some of the demons that still rummage around in her mind. Camille reluctantly agrees, more out of ambition than the prospect of quieting the demons.

The primary demon dispenser back in Wind Gap is Camille's mother, misleadingly named Adora. Her 13-year-old half-sister, Amma, is also the recipient of Adora's peculiar notions of nurturing. There was another sister, too, but she died. Adora has devoted the balance of her own life to never getting over it. She has become a master at selfless mental flagellation, especially if she can wield the whip.

Amma adds a whole new dimension to the term "awful kid" and, if she was at all typical of the children that Wind Gap spawns, you could almost understand why two of them had been murdered recently. That's the reason Camille has come home, tape recorder in hand. Murder isn't common in WInd Gap, but a killer who preys on young girls and pulls out their teeth postmortem is a big story. Despite Camille's being reminded once again of the nightmare of her upbringing, it could be a career-making series of articles.

Sharp Objects was the first novel by the author of Gone Girl, which has been comfortably installed at the top of the best seller lists for a number of weeks. I am not an avid mystery reader, but, when I do partake, I only have one rather broad criterion for my opinion: If I can figure it out, it isn't all that great a mystery. By those standards -- and also by the standards of exceptionally vivid writing -- Sharp Objects is a particularly enthralling thriller. It is also a finely-etched character study of a very conflicted soul that adds a depth to the novel not generally found in the genre (at least in my experience).

Ms. Flynn plays by the mystery rules, too. She gives her readers all the appropriate clues. If you can't figure it out, you have no one to blame, but it is all so adroitly done, you mustn't be too hard on yourself.