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But for those rare talents who can pull it off, the results can be marvelous. One such writer is Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, whose savvy An American Killing (Henry Holt, $23) has been garnering attention nationwide, with favorable reviews springing up everywhere from the New York Times Review of Books to People and Redbook magazines. Though billed as a political thriller anchored in the Washington, D.C., establishment, Smith's book seems more character study than murder mystery. Her myriad characters are carefully wrought and empathetically constructed, and the intelligence and restraint she uses in telling their stories is rare in pop fiction. This is a first-rate talent; a writer of literary merits (The Book of Phoebe, Masters of Illusion) who's tackled what would seem an unexpected project with verve. "An American Killing is a departure," she says. "But it doesn't compromise my desire to deal with issues that mean something to me. In all my books, I seem to explore certain themes: the influence of fathers on their daughters, particularly remote or absent fathers; the effects of racism on all of us...I write about things that infuriate me. If I'm not infuriated at least once a week, I hope someone buries me--because I'm dead."
An American Killing is not the quick read one expects from a suspense novel, but it's an immensely satisfying one. In her review in the Times, Ellen Feldman hits the nail on the head when she writes, "The reader can't help being torn between racing ahead to discover the denouement and slowing down to enjoy the company of a host of superbly drawn characters who find themselves on surprisingly intimate terms with evil."
Smith visits Tucson for a reading and signing at She'll also lead a workshop entitled Taking the Leap To Longer Fiction, particularly aimed at short-fiction writers who want to find an agent, publish work, and/or make the leap to novel writing. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon and avid supporter of The Young Writers Institute in her native Connecticut, Smith brings both a unique cultural perspective and mentoring spirit to the table. So far, the workshop is limited to 12 people. "It would be a shame to miss a writer of her caliber," says Susan Dick, program coordinator of the UA Extended University's Writing Works Center. Cost is $129 for both days. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, at the University Services Building, 888 N. Euclid Ave. Cost is $129 for both days. For reservations and information, call 626-4444. AUTHORS ON TOUR: The PCC Center for the Arts presents An Evening with Quentin Crisp, celebrated author, actor, "naked civil servant," and gay cultural hero, at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, November 5 and 6, in the PCC Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Advance tickets are available at Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave.; Tucson Trunk, 5605 E. River Road; the CFA box office, and at the door. Call 206-6988 for information. POET'S CORNER: Allison Hawthorne Deming, author of Science and Other Poems and director of the UA Poetry Center, reads at 8 p.m. Wednesday, November 4, in the UA Modern Languages Building auditorium. Call 321-7760 for information.
And local poets Jon Bidwell, Tom Cox, and Steve
Snyder burn the literary oil in a charming new location--The
Velvet Tea Garden, 450 N. Sixth Ave.--with a Lamplight Reading
at 6 p.m. Sunday, November 1. An open mic follows. Call 908-0927
for information.
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MRS. TIRONE-SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON: Commercial fiction
is a curious genre. The melding of current events, headline names
and pop-culture icons seems inevitably to lead to the fireworks
effect: It either inspires oooh's and ahhh's and then disappears
into the night...or it's an outright dud.
In her latest work, published in September 1998, her finely honed
sense of outrage takes the form of one Denise Burke, wife, mother,
and famous authoress (the best-selling fictional author of real-life
crime; Burke tells how Dominick Dunne was cribbing her notes at
the O.J. trial). Her desire to have an affair with a U.S. congressman
(her own hubby is a Clinton advisor) leads her to investigate
a small-town murder in her lover's constituency. When the womanizing
congressman turns up dead in a Washington hotel with a prostitute
and a whole lotta drug paraphernalia, things are just getting
started.
