This strikes me as more than maternal ambivalence. I would, in fact, call this misogyny, at least self-hatred, and if you think it understandable in light of the senseless slaughter carried out by this woman's son, we are nonetheless stuck with this unsympathetic narrator for another 350 pages.

Still. There is undeniable excitement in saying the unsayable, in voicing the unpopular, and it mounts as this book goes on. While not always eloquent, Shriver's dive into the icy waters of the human heart is bracing. "I couldn't bear the subtle distrust that was building between us when your experience of our son did not square with mine. I have sometimes entertained the retroactive delusion that even in his crib Kevin was learning to divide and conquer, scheming to present such contrasting temperaments that we were bound to be set at odds. Kevin's features were unusually sharp for a baby, while my own still displayed that rounded Marlo Thomas credulity, as if he had leeched my very shrewdness in utero."

Whatever you believe about nature vs. nurture and the components that aggregate to create the young killers of the Columbine sort, Shriver's horrific tale mesmerizes when it doesn't cauterize.

book cover

"Confessions of a Bigamist"
By Kate Lehrer
288 pages
Shaye Areheart Books
Order from Powells.com

For those who prefer less bloodshed with their beach reading, try bigamy. Not since Anaïs Nin treated us to her diaries has a tale of female double marriage been so rollicking as Kate Lehrer's "Confessions of a Bigamist." New Yorker Michelle Banyon, an attractive, 40-something efficiency consultant with a burgeoning career, takes a business trip to Texas and meets bird doctor Wilson Collins, is seduced, crowned "Mickey," installed in his Victorian farmhouse alongside his skeptical cook, and eventually married.

All this while remaining betrothed to Steve, a fancy international lawyer who remains oblivious to her merrymaking as he closes business deals in Asia. She works to keep two households homey, two men happy, and her career happening. "The transition from a conventional and slightly repressed wife and single-minded career woman to a lust-driven adulteress was dramatic enough, but returning to New York all but undid me."

While occasionally silly and simple -- Michelle doesn't suffer nearly enough, or get caught by nearly enough people for a woman in her public position -- the story has its charms, if only because there is no moral to it, and Michelle gets to keep all her balls in play. "There are so many ways to live a life," she muses at the end. "The way I live wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I am more content than an outlaw like me deserves to be." Spoken like a woman who has turned the word "chick" on its ear.

Recent Stories