Smiley’s latest is full of surprises
Now here’s something you don’t come across every day: a mash-up of a Western, a serial-killer mystery and a feministinflected tale of life in a bordello. But Jane Smiley’s “A Dangerous Business” is all that — and, amazingly, it works.
The novel is set in the wide-open town of Monterey, California, in 1852. Heroine Eliza Ripple (formerly Cargill) is a recent widow. Back home in Kalamazoo a few years earlier, the teenage Eliza was pushed into marriage by her parents, who were dazzled by the social and financial credentials of a handsome stranger in town named Peter.
Predictably, Peter turned out to be a con man — and one who was sexually brutish to Eliza, to boot. Entranced by the mirage of the Gold Rush, Peter dragged Eliza to Monterey, where he was promptly shot in a bar fight. Eliza didn’t shed many tears. Indeed, widowhood improved her personal and financial situation: “She was now earning her living (and a good living!) in Monterey.”
Eliza’s new place of employment is a bordello run by a Mrs. Parks, one of many such establishments in boomtown Monterey where there were “perhaps eight or nine fellows for every woman — and everyone got along well enough.” Not since Miss Kitty of “Gunsmoke” hosted Marshal Dillon, Chester and Doc every night at the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City has life in a bawdy house seemed so amiable. (Surely you didn’t think Miss Kitty and her “girls” were just serving up beers to all those cowpokes, did you?)
But the atmosphere shifts from risque to downright risky after two young women from rival establishments go missing and other unsettling discoveries in and around Monterey come to light. Mrs. Parks exudes the world-weary wisdom of a woman who’s been around the block a few times. “Between you and me,” she tells Eliza, “being a woman is a dangerous business, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Around the same time, Eliza is befriended by another young woman named Jean who proffers her services at the Pearly Gates, a bordello that “attend[s] to the needs of ladies, not men.” Jean sometimes wears men’s clothes and avails herself of male privileges, taking Eliza on long walks down to the docks and into the surrounding woodlands. She also introduces Eliza to Edgar Allan Poe’s detective stories, starting with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Thinking about the deductive mastery of Poe’s detective, Auguste Dupin, “Eliza ... was impressed mostly by the idea that a train of logic could lead to something utterly unexpected.” Soon enough, Eliza and Jean will be emulating Monsieur Dupin as they take it upon themselves to investigate the mystery of the missing girls — a mystery the male authorities in Monterey are content to ignore.
Throughout her long career, Smiley (whose novel “A Thousand Acres” won a Pulitzer in 1992) has been a shape shifter, challenging herself to write in myriad literary genres.
Her fiction has taken the form of academic satire (“Moo”) and speculative Norse history (“The Greenlanders”); she’s written young-adult novels and a biography of Charles Dickens, among other nonfiction. Smiley has even tackled this period in American history before, in her novel “The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton,” set in the Kansas territory.
In “A Dangerous Business,” Smiley smoothly melds three distinct narratives into one without breaking a sweat.
The solution to the serial killings of other prostitutes, as in Poe’s tales, indeed turns out to be “utterly unexpected”; but it’s really Eliza’s story — the adventures of a resourceful young woman stranded at the edge of the Pacific who is determined to hold onto her newfound autonomy — that commands attention. Even though the ghastly goings-on in Monterey awaken Eliza to the ease with which women without connections can vanish, she’s determined not to return to Kalamazoo. In true pioneer tradition, Eliza has faith that whatever lies ahead has to be preferable to what came before.
The self-help and health sections of a bookstore can be hard to navigate. How do you know which books to choose? What advice holds up? To help answer those questions, The Well+Being desk asked bestselling authors and leading health experts to recommend their favorite nonfiction read of 2022. For this article, we took a broad view of what self-help means, since any book that makes you think differently can be a self-help book.
Most of the recommendations were published this year, but our list includes some older classics. As Dan Heath, author of “Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen,” puts it: “One of the great things about selfhelp nonfiction books is that they are evergreen.” Here are their picks.
“How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion”
Author: David McRaney Recommended by: Adam Grant, author of “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know”
Why he liked it: “This book inspired me to rethink my assumptions about how to motivate others to rethink theirs. In an era when closed minds seem to be all around us, it’s a masterful analysis of what it takes to open them.”
“Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole”
Author: Susan Cain
Recommended by: Susan David, author of “Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life”
Why she liked it: “In a world that often tries to force silver linings and positive thinking, this book refreshingly explores the truth of life: beauty and longing, joy and sorrow are all our companions. Bittersweet surfaces the power of tough emotions, and guides us on how to understand them in ways that are healthy and whole.”
“Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most”
Author: Cassie Holmes Recommended by: Katy Milkman author of “How To Change: The Science of Getting from Where You
Are to Where You Want to Be”
Why she liked it: “’Happier Hour’ shares advice on how to think differently about your time to build a more fulfilling life, which is an incredibly important topic. I love this book because it’s evidence-based, practically useful, and it’s a pleasure to read. It’s already changed my life for the better!”
“What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing”
Author: Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry
Recommended by: Tara Parker-Pope, Well+Being editor and author of “For Better: How the Surprising Science of Happy Couples Can Help Your Marriage Succeed”
Why she liked it: “At a time when it’s tough to find mental health services, listening to this audio book over the course of a few weeks can feel like 10 sessions with a therapist. This book will not only explain how trauma can shape who we are, but also its ongoing influence on our relationships and the choices we make every day.”
“The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully”
Author: Frank Ostaseski Recommended by: Lakeasha Sullivan, contributing columnist for Well+Being and clinical psychologist
Why she liked it: “Death is the ultimate teacher, and suppressing thoughts about it robs us of priceless opportunities to use it as a beacon for our lives. This book helps us courageously face the truth about our mortality, making everyday decisions easier because we can align them with our highest values.”
“Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put In Us and On Us”
Author: George Zaidan Recommended by: Mary Roach, author of “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks The Laws”
Why she liked it: “Zaidan guides readers through the hype and misunderstandings that surround the word ‘natural.’ We learn what’s safe and what isn’t, why that is and how science comes to these conclusions. Plus, he’s the funniest science writer I know. I hated chemistry in high school, but I loved this book.”
“What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma”
Author: Stephanie Foo Recommended by: Sahaj Kaur Kohli, Washington Post advice columnist, mental health professional and creator of Brown Girl Therapy
Why she liked it: “As a mental health professional, I love this book because it explores trauma from a cultural lens. As a child of immigrants, I feel like I know Stephanie and by investing in her journey, I learn to invest in my own. While this book confronts heavy and difficult themes, it’s ultimately hopeful.”
“Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings”
Author: Chrysta Bilton Recommended by: Lori Gottlieb, author of “Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed”
Why she liked it: “It’s an extraordinary memoir about identity, family secrets, the nature of love and forgiveness, and resilience that’s alternatively hilarious and heartbreaking, redemptive and triumphant. I couldn’t stop turning the pages, and never stopped thinking about this story long after I finished.”
“The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality”
Author: Kathryn Paige Harden
Recommended by: Daniel Pink, author of “The Power of Regret: How Looking Forward Moves us Back”
Why he liked it: “A provocative, and often brilliant, look at how the randomness of the genes we inherit affects the course of our lives – and why acknowledging this uncomfortable fact is essential in understanding who we are and how we can build a more just society.”
“Stumbling on Happiness”
Author: Daniel Gilbert
“Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending”
Authors: Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton
Recommended by: Dan Heath, author of “Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen”
Why he liked them: “Lately I’ve been thinking about how much my life was changed (for the better) by these two books. I can trace specific decisions about how to spend time and money – including which house to buy! – to the advice given by those books.”
“The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness”
Authors: Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn
Recommended by: Richard Sima, Brain Matters columnist
Why he liked it: “This book helped me through a difficult time in graduate school and is one that I return to for guidance and wisdom. It offers practical advice and exercises on mindfulness grounded in science, which I believe many will find helpful and life-changing like I did and still do.”