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Mystery author Sue Grafton died in late December at age 77. The last of her alphabetical Kinsey Millhone novels, Y is for Yesterday, appeared this past year. Like other engaging mystery series, Grafton’s combines a fresh crime puzzle in each volume with an admirable, imperfect protagonist whose life progresses from book to book.
I probably read A is for Alibi soon after it came out in 1982. Grafton was 42 years old, her fictional private investigator 32, and the southern California setting contemporary. Reading B is for Burglar and its successors as they appeared, I gradually noticed Kinsey’s world falling out of sync with mine. At first jarred, then intrigued, I finally became entranced with how Grafton handles the passage of time. You do the math. In twenty-five mysteries over thirty-five years of your life (if you’re old enough) or Grafton’s or mine, Kinsey Millhone ages from 32 to 39. Sleuthing her way from A to Y entirely within the 1980s, Kinsey has to find a pay phone to communicate. She still makes notes on 3”-by-5” index cards and consults reference books at the brick-and-mortar library. With the slowing of time, I’ve watched her world shift from the one I inhabited to the one I remember.
13 Comments
Lisa Imhoff
1/8/2018 08:55:14 am
I wonder why she didn't have her age in real time? But actually, I was sort of thinking the same thing just an hour ago as the Sunday comics lay on the table next to my plate (lazy housekeeping being the reason) and those kids (and parents) in Family Circle just never change. It's rather comforting. So, would you feel better if she used her iPhone for everything? There has to be more tension the old way. Grafton once said in an interview that she didn't make Kinsey age in real time because, in case this was a long series, she wanted Kinsey still climbing over fences and running down streets long after she, the author, could no longer do so. No, I don't wish the times changed while Kinsey stayed in her 30s! I love the way Grafton does it. Many series have characters getting slowly older, like babies Linus and then Sally in Peanuts turning into little kids, but I don't know of any that are quite so intentional about fixing the environment in a particular period. Do you suppose Grafton could have known in 1982 just which practices and technologies would become defining hallmarks of that decade?
Richard Heiberger
1/8/2018 11:45:53 am
Peanuts and Family Circle have both been in reruns for decades. Yes, Rich and Lisa both, Peanuts and Family circle are timeless and archetypal. (Though I do enjoy the aluminum trees in Charlie Brown's Christmas, a fad from 1958 to mid 1960s, about when the TV special came out.) Kinsey Millhone is the opposite, very time-specific, the author going out of her was to make sure you know when this was.
Lisa Imhoff
1/8/2018 09:53:21 am
The thing about Peanuts (or Family Circle) is that those kids are archetypal kids. I guess Kinsey must be an archetypal detective. One thing Grafton did when she titled her first book was decide to work in a series, to a maximum of 26 books. That's a cool challenge. Two distinctive features of Grafton in this context, compared to other series authors: First, her series is much longer than most and, as you say, she planned it that way from the start. Second, she doesn't just mention Kinsey finding a phone or consulting a map in passing to avoid anachronism. Grafton positively relishes how these things set the period and makes sure you can't miss it. Kinsey takes the street map from her shoulder bag, opens it to full, spreads it across her desk to check the street index, and finds the street at the axis of G on the horizontal and 31 on the vertical. (X p. 45) Grafton is having fun with time, and so is the reader.
Lisa Imhoff
1/8/2018 10:17:31 am
How cool. I love thoughtful writing.
Lisa Imhoff
1/8/2018 12:32:49 pm
Ya, that's right, Peanuts is stuck in time, and wonderful for it. Yesterday's FC, buttons of "2017 Rememberies" has Dolly saying to her brother, "God knows our sins 'cause they're stored in his cloud." And the brother in another button says as the mother is showing him a globe, "Neat! Now zoom in and show us where our house is." Pretty contemporary. :)
Lisa Imhoff
1/8/2018 04:52:28 pm
I took the zoom thing to be like something you'd do on a satellite map on a computer or tablet, not with a camera from a spaceship. Oh yes, cameras have had zoom lenses for a long time. Interesting to think of doing something the way we did it not that long ago. I remember getting our first cordless phone. Not cellular. Cordless.
Lisa Imhoff
1/8/2018 05:30:52 pm
With a rotary dial, so you hated numbers like mine - 874-2909. Took forever for the rotor to get back from the high numbers. Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin.
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