The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter

In Orner’s searching latest (after the essay collection Still No Word from You), struggling novelist Jed Rosenthal tells the story of Hollywood starlet Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet’s unsolved murder in 1963. It begins with Cookie’s father, Chicago gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet, arriving in Los Angeles with his close friend Lou Rosenthal—Jed’s grandfather—and Lou’s younger brother, Solly, to collect Cookie’s body and bring it back to Chicago. Solly, who will go on to work as muscle for the mob, is here to guard Irv from the press, while Lou, a probate lawyer, is on hand to help with the paperwork. In a metafictional thread that runs through the novel, Jed admits he’s “out of other ideas” and years past the deadline for his manuscript based on the case. Jed’s obsession with the murder stems from the mysterious break between Irv and his wife, Essie, and Jed’s grandparents Lou and Babs (“She dropped us like old shoes,” Babs says about Essie) after Cookie’s death, which Jed points to as the cause of his family’s misfortunes. Over the course of the sprawling and sharply fragmented narrative, Jed spins indelible stories of his grandfather’s legal troubles, Solly’s untimely death, his parents’ divorce, and his painful separation from his partner. Eventually, he lands on a satisfying solution to the mystery. It’s a rewarding literary experiment. (Aug.)