Lauren Lipton is a gifted author, writer and journalist. Her sophomore venture in the literary world, The Mating Rituals of the North America WASP is again set in the context of the “comedic feminine literature” — a segment of literature that’s discussed at great length in the podcast. Lipton has been interviewed here on this blog previously for her first book, It’s About Your Husband
The lovely Lauren Lipton who takes a much better photo than she thinks!
Here’s the update on this blog & podcast. I read the book from cover to much abused cover and loved it. Lipton as always is able to set up an emotional as well as visceral context for the characters in which they act out their dramas, issues and other matters– much like a play but this book is more visual than a play. Think more like SATC but much much better and with a better plot line that really takes us to the heart of the book and of each character in the book. You do indeed become “one” with the universe that Lauren has created. She’s very very good at what she does — and creates a believeable happy ending that really cries out for a second installment to find out what happens to Luke, Peggy, and friends.
The cover says it all I think!
Lucky for me, I happen to know Lauren Lipton pretty well. We communicate by email, IM, facebook updates and comments, (really it’s so true– social media at the most basic level. We might start texting eventually (?), phone calls and then also podcasts that suddenly morph from interview to become two friends chatting away and oops suddenly you get to hear the dish that two women in fashion, beauty and style often talk about– and that’s what’s in the podcast.
What I love about Lauren is that in this book, she has done some serious research into the lifestyle of the “American Yankee” milieu AKA WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) , nailed down the essentials and the very specific details right down to the architectural details and the issues that make these people tick within their own environment. You are feeling what they are feeling, seeing through their own eyes what is going on and perhaps having a peek (or more) into their minds and hearts.
Podcast Interview with the Lovely Lauren Lipton..
More poems by Luke Sedgwick
At the end of Mating Rituals of North American WASP, Luke prepares to read a poem he has just written. This is the sonnet, which does not appear in the book:
Roses in the Snow
You blur the line between reality
and dream in how you shimmer when you walk,
in how your eyes are stars; and when you talk
of love our world becomes a galaxy
of pulsing kiss, of fire, of deep embrace.
We walk a bridge to pure light long ago,
when this vast universe was fierily born;
and though such moments are too swiftly gone,
like all pleasures, like roses in the snow,
they allure endlessly in memory–
that surreal bridge, Las Vegas, how your face
took on a brilliant, rose-impassioned glow,
and I was yours forever. Nothing more
to life than seeing you now: my heart soars.
Poet Lee Slonimsky, who wrote “Roses in the Snow” as well as all of Luke’s other sonnets, also imagined this alternate scenario in which Luke ends up without his true love:
Luke, Alone, in Fall
It’s sweeter now to count these final leaves
than shrinking figures in a bank account;
a mournful sweetness, true, for autumn weaves
slow fading colors with a vacant ache
for summer’s brighter rainbows–losses mount,
financial and the setbacks to my heart,
as time erodes all fortune. The house creaks
in sympathy, an echo that diverts
but not for long; I must address my pain,
a ricochet of incompleteness. She
is with me constantly–just as soft rain
companions windstrewn clouds and near bare trees –
but in sad thoughts alone; now, bring her close
or else be ever haunted by love’s ghost!
About the poet
Lee Slonimksy has a rare talent for both art and finance. He is the manager of the technology hedge fund Ocean Partners LP and is currently a principal in discussions to create a new, environmentally oriented fund, Green Hills Partners LP. Slonimsky’s poems, which often explore the relationship between love, nature and mathematics, have appeared in hundreds of literary journals and newspapers, including the Carolina Quarterly, Poetry Daily and Measure. His books of poetry are Talk Between Leaf and Skin (SRLR Press, 2002), Pythagoras in Love (Orchises Press, 2007), and the forthcoming Logician of the Wind. He lives with his wife, the award-winning mystery writer Carol Goodman, in Great Neck, N.Y.
Poems copyright (c) 2008 Lee Slonimsky. All rights reserved. These poems, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced without permission.
Readings/Events/ Personal Appearances of the “lovely Lauren Lipton”
Saturday, June 13, 7 to 7:45 a.m.
Live interview Reading with Robin WHJJ 920AM Talk Radio
Providence, R.I. call in at (866) 920-9455 Listen live online
Saturday, June 13, 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Appearance/signing
The Hickory Stick Bookshop 2 Green Hill Road Washingon Depot, Connecticut 06794
(860) 868-0525
Sunday, June 14, 4 p.m.
Appearance/presentation The Southport Conservancy Annual meeting
Southport, Connecticut
Wednesday, June 17, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Reading/signing: Mating Rituals of the North American WASP
Barnes & Noble 2289 Broadway At 82nd Street New York, New York 10024
(212) 362-8835
Thursday, July 9, 7 to 8 p.m.
Panel discussion: Women’s Fiction
With Marie Bostwick and Lynn Biederman
Oliver Wolcott Library 160 South Street Litchfield, Connecticut
Wednesday, July 22, time and location TBA
Mating Rituals of the North American WASP book party
Mediabistro.com New York, New York Invitation required
(Ms. Lipton.. we need to get some West Coast dates please. Just so we can have a martini or something alcoholic together. Come over and hang out by the beach)
The Mating Rituals of the North American Wasp is available at all major booksellers including Amazon.com
OR get original and order direct from Lauren Lipton’s website HERE
Stevie Wilson
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