"Ms. Demeanor"

Elinor Lipman is the award-winning author of sixteen books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Inn at Lake Devine, Isabel’s Bed, I Can’t Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays, On Turpentine Lane, and Rachel to the Rescue. Her first novel, Then She Found Me, became a 2008 feature film, directed by and starring Helen Hunt, with Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick. She was the 2011–12 Elizabeth Drew Professor of Creative Writing at Smith College and divides her time between Manhattan and the Hudson Valley.

Lipman applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Ms. Demeanor, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Ms. Demeanor is the second page of a chapter that begins with the question, “Had I embarked on something I’d soon regret?” That “something” is a catering gig, undertaken reluctantly. My narrator is Jane Morgan, disbarred lawyer, getting paid to provide dinner three nights a week for Perry Salisbury, who is, like her, under house arrest for not- very -felonious crimes. Though the arrangement is for drop-off meals and not dinner à deux, on this inaugural delivery, Perry opens a bottle of wine and invites her to stay. She asks herself, “Why was I being such a stickler, especially with the prospect of a no-doubt-excellent red?” She says, "Okay. One glass while you eat. You’ll give me feedback’” (on her Mexican meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes and Cancun slaw.) I didn’t want it to be a comfortable situation, but an awkward one. At this point, all they have in common is their address and their home confinements.

It’s a pretty good sample of my voice and Jane’s. Some readers might see what will develop between these two, but on page 69, I didn’t know myself. As for its relevance to the whole work, the novel is food-heavy, and this is Catering Night No. 1 with many more meals to come.

I don’t outline, so I’m often surprised at where I let the keyboard take me.To counter that, I’m a stern self-editor; if I go down a dud path, I cut whole pages, sometimes whole chapters for the greater good. The notion of my narrator being under house arrest wasn’t preconceived. It popped into my head as I was ending the first chapter, and I thought, this could be interesting.

Visit Elinor Lipman's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Family Man.

The Page 99 Test: I Can't Complain.

The Page 69 Test: Good Riddance.

--Marshal Zeringue