The Abbreviated Alphabet.
There is no Z. There SHOULD be a Z. The alphabet is
not meant to end on Y. But it does now. Or at least it does for me
and all of the fans of Kinsey Millhone.
Author Sue Grafton died at the
end of 2017. Just another reason to add to the long list of things that
were wrong with the year. Shame on me for not even knowing that she was
sick.
I first "discovered"
Sue one summer. Summer means the NJ shore to me. And that also
means that books must be on hand to read on the beach. ("Back in the
day" there was not that much to do other than read. The house we
rented didn't have cable tv. I was happy to spend my days on the beach
and my evenings on the deck with a good book...and a glass or two of wine!) I'm
not sure of the year, but it was probably in the early 1990s when I picked
up A is For Alibi, the first in the "alphabet"
series. I read it quickly. I wasn't that impressed. It was ok
and that was that.
Fast forward several years, I'm
thinking December of 2001. (I'm not sure of the year, but I am sure of
the month.) I was alone in the house (hubby was at the movies with
friends) and baking holiday cookies. I pretty much had to stay in the
kitchen as I swapped out baking sheets. Someone had given me a used
hardback copy of N is For Noose. I was hooked. I didn't want
to stop reading (and may have burned some cookies in the process.)
When I finished, I knew it was
time to go back to the beginning and make my way through. I no longer had
a copy of A is for Alibi. It was off to the local library
where I started from the scratch. Unfortunately, they didn't have all the
books, and I wanted to go in order. I ended up going to my local used
book store and buying as many of Sue's books as I could find. Sadly, this
meant I had to skip over a few letters. I got all the way from A-J but L and M
proved hard to find. I know that I read O and P before I was able to go
back to L and M. (Have no idea why these two were so hard to find!)
Somewhere along the line, I
wrote Ms. Grafton a fan letter and requested an autograph. (Again, this was
"back in the day" before selfies, when collecting autographs what a
pseudo-cool thing to do.) She very graciously obliged me along with sending this lovely note:
I read Y is For Yesterday in the late fall of 2017. It had been my plan to re-read the entire series once Z came out. But now there is no Z. There is no wrap up for Kinsey Millhone. And perhaps that is the way it SHOULD be.
I read Y is For Yesterday in the late fall of 2017. It had been my plan to re-read the entire series once Z came out. But now there is no Z. There is no wrap up for Kinsey Millhone. And perhaps that is the way it SHOULD be.
If you've read any of the
alphabet books (and you SHOULD), you already know that there is nothing is neat
and tidy (except for maybe Kinsey's apartment and office). Her life is
complicated. She is no superwoman. She makes mistakes. She is
imperfect, just as we all are.
If there is one thing to be
learned from Kinsey Millhone (other than the joy of peanut butter and pickle
sandwiches) is that we need to be self-reliant. That's not to say that we
shouldn't have friends (and relatives) that we can count on, but we need to be
able to take care of ourselves and look after ourselves. We need to be
able think for ourselves. (Remember, Kinsey was created and lives in a
world where they are no smart phones or computers. She does her work the
"old fashioned" way...she researches in libraries and uses public pay
phones.) In Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton did not create an ideal woman,
but a REAL woman. Someone we can learn from; not just in her successes,
but in her mistakes too.
You know, I've been looking for a new set of books to read, maybe they will be available cheaply from the library on my kindle?!
ReplyDelete