My latest grievance / Elinor Lipman.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Almost nobody writes serious entertainment with more panache" than Elinor Lipman, wrote the Chicago Tribune. From her debut novel, Then She Found Me, which in the words of the Washington Post revived the art of "screwball comedy for the newly dawned nineties," to her most recent, best-selling The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, which the Philadelphia Weekly hailed as "the most perfect piece of prose writing to come along in quite a while," Elinor Lipman has set the gold standard by which other comic novelists are judged.

Now her pitch-perfect new novel, set in 1978, introduces us to the beguiling Frederica Hatch. Born and raised in the dormitory of a small women's college, and chafing under the care of "the most annoyingly evenhanded parental team in the history of civilization," Frederica is starting to feel that her life is stiflingly snug. "I had no intention of blending in. I wanted to be who I'd become, the Eloise of Dewing College, the full-time residential expert in an institution that others occupied only fleetingly."

Into this cozy world comes Miss Laura Lee French -- a wannabe former Rockette and the new dorm mother at the college where Frederica's parents teach and live. Laura Lee proves to be the enthralling and glamorous antithesis of the Hatches, whose passion for liberal political causes is all-consuming -- even Frederica's Barbie dolls have been anatomically corrected. As Frederica says, "The timing was excellent . . . Just as I was craving more attention, along came LauraLee French, dorm mother without a day job, single, childless, and ultimately famous within our gates."

"Like an inspired alchemist" (New York Times Book Review), Lipman turns this seemingly routine faculty hire into a catalyst for havoc and hilarity. For it happens that Miss French -- in the distant past -- was married to none other than Frederica's earnest and distinctly unglamorous father.

As in her previous novels, Lipman writes "in a delicious style that is both funny and elegant" (USA Today), rendering serious subjects "through a lens of humor and hope" (Boston Globe). The results? Vintage Elinor Lipman -- delightful, memorable, and touching.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

The Perfect Child I was raised in a brick dormitory at Dewing College, formerly the Mary-Ruth Dewing Academy, a finishing school best known for turning out attractive secretaries who married up. In the late 1950s, Dewing began granting baccalaureate degrees to the second-rate students it continued to attract despite its expansion into intellectual terrain beyond typing and shorthand. The social arts metamorphosed into sociology and psychology, nicely fitting the respective fields of job seekers Aviva Ginsburg Hatch, Ph.D., my mother, and David Hatch, Ph.D., my father. Twin appointments had been unavailable at the hundred more prestigious institutions they aspired and applied to. They arrived in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1960, not thrilled with the Dewing wages or benefits, but ever hopeful and prone to negotiation - two bleeding hearts that beat as one, conjoined since their first date in 1955 upon viewing a Movietone newsreel of Rosa Parkss arrest. Were they types, my parents-to-be? From a distance, and even to me for a long time, it appeared to be so. Over coffee in grad school theyd found that each had watched every black-and-white televised moment of the Army-McCarthy hearings, had both written passionately on The Grapes of Wrath in high school; both held Samuel Gompers and Pete Seeger in high esteem; both owned albums by the Weavers. Their wedding invitations, stamped with a union bug, asked that guests make donations in lieu of gifts to the presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson. It was my father who proposed that their stable marriage and professional sensitivities would lend themselves to the rentfree benefit known as houseparenting. The dean of residential life said she was sorry, but a married couple was out of the question: Parents would not like a man living among their nubile daughters. "What about a man with a baby?" my father replied coyly. It was a premature announcement. My mothers period must have been no more than a week late at the time of that spring interview, but they both felt ethically bound to share the details of her menstrual calendar. He posited further: Werent two responsible, vibrant parents with relevant Ph.D.s better than their no doubt competent but often elderly predecessors, who - with all due respect - werent such a great help with homework and tended to die on the job? David and Aviva inaugurated their long line of labor-management imbroglios by defending my right to live and wail within the 3.5 rooms of their would-be apartment. If given the chance, theyd handle everything; theyd address potential doubts and fears head-on in a letter theyd send to parents and guardians of incoming Mary-Ruths, as we called the students, introducing themselves, offering their phone number, their curricula vitae, their open door, and their projected vision of nuclear familyhood. The nervous dean gave the professors Hatch a one-year trial; after all, an infant in a dorm might disrupt residential life Excerpted from My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Lipman's latest is both funny and poignant. Frederica Hatch was born on the Dewing College campus in 1961 to David and Aviva Hatch, two liberal Dewing professors who also served as house-parents in one of the dorms. Frederica becomes the darling of this small women's college. Reared in an extremely open, adultlike manner, she approaches her 16th birthday with maturity and the confidence of knowing everything about her seemingly boring parents. It is with great surprise that she receives a strand of pearls from Laura Lee French, her father's first wife. Not only did Frederica not know there was a first wife and a divorce, but she learns that her mother was "the other woman"! Events start to accelerate when Laura Lee becomes house mother in another dorm. The arrival of Laura Lee, a former wannabe Rockette, becomes the mechanism by which a new college president will meet his Waterloo and the Hatch family will rise above expectations. Language is a musical instrument in Lipman's skillful hands; her dialog resonates with emotion. Alternately hilarious and charming, this book will enchant every listener. The reading by Mia Barron, who does a superb job of imbuing each character with a distinct voice, makes this recording an absolute delight. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-Gloria Maxwell, Metropolitan Community Coll. Lib., Kansas City, MO (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Frederica Hatch-the articulate, curious, and na?ve narrator of Lipman's eighth novel-proves the perfect vehicle for this satiric yet compassionate family portrait. It's 1976, and psych professors David and Aviva Hatch are honest with their daughter to the point of anatomically correcting Frederica's Barbie dolls. In all their years as a dorm family at a small women's college outside Boston, though, no one mentioned Laura Lee French, David's first wife (and distant cousin). Frederica, now 15 and ready for rebellion, delights in Laura's arrival on campus as a new dorm mother; David and Aviva look on nervously as the two become fast friends. In contrast with Frederica's right-thinking, '60s radical parents, Laura Lee becomes the delicious embodiment of all the moral and psychological complexities of a flawed world beyond campus. Meanwhile, campus itself looks very little like an ivory tower as major scandal brews amid petty gossip. As in previous novels, Lipman addresses sensitive issues (anti-Semitism, adultery, dementia) with delicacy and acerbity. She also nails the shifts and moods of an angry teenager, a grandmother in denial, a philanderer in hiding and a campus in shock. By the end, a smart young girl learns compassion for a world that can be grotesquely, hilariously, disturbingly unfair. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Harkening back to her The Inn at Lake Devine (1998) days, Lipman--known for her wit, sharp societal observations, and lovely command of language--has created a novel of warmth, wisdom, love, and redemption that is funny and fun to read. Frederica Hatch narrates, and if Eloise, of Plaza Hotel fame, were older, kinder, and more outwardly directed, Frederica would be her soul mate. Frederica's story begins in 1961 when she is born on the campus of Dewing College, where her radical professor parents raise her in a unique and open manner. She becomes the school pet, mischievous, smarter than the students, and given free reign on campus. Then, into the world Frederica thinks she controls, comes Laura Lee French, a vain, man-crazy nutcase, who, it so happens, was once married to Frederica's father. Frederica and Laura Lee square off, leading to all sorts of problems that Frederica and her parents cleverly resolve. Lipman skillfully matches the cadence of Frederica's growing up with the developments of the story to create moments to cherish and characters to adore. --Neal Wyatt Copyright 2006 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

All hell breaks loose when a new dorm mother arrives at a second-rate New England girl's college in Lipman's eighth romantic comedy (The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, 2003, etc). In 1977, 16-year-old narrator Frederica Hatch lives on the campus of Dewing College with her mother and father, David and Aviva, who serve as houseparents as well as professors of psychology and sociology. Frederica's only friend on campus, sort of, is Marietta Woodbury, daughter of Dewing's new president; the girls have formed an uneasy relationship encouraged by Mrs. Woodbury, who gives Frederica rides to the public high school they both attend. David and Aviva are stereotypical academics: dowdy, painstakingly rational, and committed to liberal causes, particularly those related to employee-management relations on campus. So their daughter is shocked to discover that David was previously married to his distant cousin, Laura Lee French, whom he left for Aviva, his soulmate. Thanks to Frederica's conveniently (if unconvincingly) interfering grandmother, Laura Lee takes a job at Dewing as a dorm mother. Frederica, already chafing at being raised as a kind of college mascot, is initially enchanted by the new arrival's flamboyant style, but Laura Lee is clearly a troublemaker, if not a sociopath. She enjoys making David and especially Aviva uncomfortable. After Frederica introduces her to the college president (in the cafeteria, where the Hatches eat all their meals), Laura Lee and Dr. Woodbury carry on a brazenly open affair, which so humiliates his wife that she attempts suicide by carbon-monoxide poisoning. She survives, but with brain damage--a decidedly unfunny situation for a supposedly comic novel. Lipman ties up the rest of the plot in typical sprightly fashion: David becomes college president; Laura Lee has a baby who grows up to be a delight; Frederica returns to work at Dewing as an adult. It's as though Mrs. Woodbury's ruined life is just a minor contrivance. Not one of this popular author's best. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.