Monday, September 19, 2011

Sentencing

I looked through Roger Ebert's autobiography at Square Books the other day. It has a great first sentence: "I was born inside the movie of my life." But then I checked the index, and Jerry Lewis appears on just one page. Unacceptable, Mr. Ebert! As you know, I check all the indices for Jerry Lewis as a public service, and one mention is just not enough to justify purchase, even if the one reference is a story about the time Jerry Lewis ruined Dick Van Dyke's meeting with the queen! And in the Ebert, Jerry displays no such waggery, but gets a mere passing reference. So, great first sentence, but no go. I will tell you what I did buy that day: THE MOST DANGEROUS THING, the new novel by Laura Lippman. Not sure what the most dangerous thing is yet. But one of the most dangerous things is the last sentence of Chapter Four. I won't tell it to you because that would be a spoiler. Also, it won't have the same impact unless you suddenly bump into it at the end of Chapter Four. When I read that sentence, I made a noise!