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OTHER TYPIST
Author:
Rindell, Suzanne
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PS3618
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ISBN-13: 9780399161469
LCCN: 2013000995
Imprint: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Inc
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Pub Date: 05/07/2013
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $25.95
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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356 pages ; 24 cm
H 9.34",
W 6.29",
D 1.17",
1.26 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
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Bibliographies:
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Fiction Core Collection, 17th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 18th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 19th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 20th ed.
Texas Lariate Reading List
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Awards:
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Kirkus Best Books
Kirkus Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Kirkus Reviews
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TIPS Subjects:
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General Fiction
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Literary
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LC Subjects:
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New York (N.Y.), History, 1898-1951, Fiction
Nineteen twenties, Fiction
Police stations, New York (State), New York, Fiction
Typists, Fiction
Women, New York (State), New York, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
New York (N.Y.), History, Fiction
Nineteen twenties, Fiction
Police stations, New York (N.Y.), Fiction
Typwriting, Fiction
Women, New York (N.Y.), Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Publisher Annotations | 02/01/2013 |
| It is 1923. Rose Baker is a typist in the New York City Police Department on the lower east side. Confessions are her job. The criminals admit to their crimes, and like a high priestess, Rose records their every word. Often she is the only woman present. And while she may hear about shootings, knifings, and crimes of passion, as soon as she leaves that room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for making coffee. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Kirkus Reviews | 04/15/2013 |
| Take a dollop of Alfred Hitchcock, a dollop of Patricia Highsmith, throw in some Great Gatsby flourishes, and the result is Rindell's debut, a pitch-black comedy about a police stenographer accused of murder in 1920s Manhattan. Typing criminals' confessions, Rose admires the precinct's conservative, mustachioed middle-aged sergeant while she is critical of his superior, the lieutenant detective Frank, who is closer to her in age and a clean-shaven dandy in his white spats. An orphan raised by nuns, Rose lives in a boardinghouse and leads a prim spinster life far removed from the flappers and increasingly liberated women of the "Roaring Twenties." She seems destined to a life of routine solitude until a new typist is hired. Odalie wears her hair bobbed, dresses with panache and lives in a posh hotel. Rose voices disapproval at first, but she is clearly drawn to Odalie, even obsessed with her. When Odalie invites her to share her hotel rooms, Rose moves right in. Soon, Rose is accompanying Odalie on her adventures, which include bootlegging, among other vices. Sometimes Rose borrows Odalie's clothes, sometimes she runs errands for Odalie. But who is Odalie? Where does her money come from? And if she has money, why does she work as a police stenographer? At a house party on Long Island, a young man from Newport thinks he recognizes Odalie as the debutante once engaged to his cousin, but she denies knowing him. By the time he turns up dead, Rose has been sucked into Odalie's world so deeply that their identities have merged. Who is using whom? Recalling her recent life, revealing only what she wants to reveal in bits and pieces, Rose begins her narration archly with off-putting curlicues she gradually discards. She is tart, judgmental, self-righteous and self-justifying. She is also viciously astute. Whether she's telling the truth is another matter. A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page-turner, both comic and provocative, about the nature of guilt and innocence within the context of social class in a rapidly changing culture. 368pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 08/01/2013 |
| Your guide to noteworthy debuts of 2013. Is there anything more nerve-racking than publishing a first novel? For authors and publishers alike, it's a nail-biting moment of sink or swim. Here are 10 debuts from the year (so far!) that signal the start of promising careers. By Suzanne Rindell. For fans of: Amor Towles, Zo' Heller, M.L. Stedman. First line: "They said the typewriter would unsex us." About the book: Rose, a prim and proper typist working in 1920s Manhattan, forms a friendship with mysterious, fun-loving Odalie that borders on obsession. With Rose as its sly and slightly unreliable narrator, this suspenseful story will keep you guessing. About the author: A former employee of a literary agency, Rindell is finishing up a Ph.D. in modernist literature at Rice University. Read more. Review from our May issue. BOOKPAGE, c2013. |
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| Booklist | 05/01/2013 |
| Rose, a police precinct typist in Prohibition New York, has seen many things. As the recorder of confessions and transgressions of all sorts, she considers herself to be an astute judge of character. So when Odalie Lazare, a new typist, arrives in the office, Rose is intrigued by her beauty, charm, and seeming wealth. Rose becomes infatuated with Odalie, who is not what she appears to be, as Odalie pulls Rose into a world filled with speakeasies, bootleggers, and elite estate parties. With hints toward The Great Gatsby, Rindell's novel aspires to re-create Prohibition-era New York City, both its opulence and its squalid underbelly. She captures it quite well, while at the same time spinning a delicate and suspenseful narrative about false friendship, obsession, and life for single women in New York during Prohibition. Paulson, Heather. 368p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Library Journal | 05/03/2013 |
| New York City in the 1920s is a time of speakeasies and bathtub gin, an era when women smoke in public and bob their hair. An orphan raised by nuns, Rose Baker has learned to follow the rules as a means of self-preservation. Now employed as a typist in a New York City police precinct, she transcribes confessions that will eventually become irrefutable evidence in court. When an enchanting typist named Odalie joins the precinct, everything changes. Despite her better judgment, Rose is soon under Odalies's spell. Rose quickly learns that there are several versions of Odalie's past, and much to Rose's chagrin, the importance of knowing which is true becomes increasingly less important as time goes on. What begins for Rose as the promise of the bosom-friend she never had quickly becomes a complicated mess of lies, deceit, and insanity. Verdict Fans of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley are sure to love Rindell's debut novel, which parallels Ripley in its examination of our fascination with wealth and the potential consequences of keeping the wrong company. [See Prepub Alert, 11/19/12.]-Caitlin Bronner, St. Joseph's Coll. Lib., Brooklyn. 368p. LJ Xpress Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 11/19/2012 |
| "The other typist" is Odalie, the mysterious, magnetic young woman who joins Rose Baker's typing pool at a Lower East Side precinct in 1924 Manhattan. Lonely Rose, confused by the rapid changing mores as the Twenties roar along, is enthralled with the newcomer, but her admiration soon turns into threatening obsession. First novelist Rindell has published poetry and short fiction in places like Conjunctions and Nimrod, so she can write. With rights to six countries. 368p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2012. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 04/29/2013 |
| With prohibition picking up steam, the New York precinct where Rose Baker works typing confessions is busy enough to need a new girl. Enter the beautiful, disturbing, and enviable Odalie. Soon Rose, a convent-raised orphan who presents herself as old-fashioned and dowdy, is ensconced in Odalie's expensive apartment, sharing her clothes, and going with her to speakeasies. Even as she's drawn in by Odalie's seductive charm and comfortable life, Rose is aware of Odalie's flexible relationship with the truth and the way she uses her position to help confederates on the wrong side of the law. But though this awareness gives Rose pause, the lure of having a friend and the thrill of living life instead of watching it pass seem to be enough to make her ignore her doubts. But then a figure from Odalie's mysterious past shows up and raises questions even Rose can't ignore, and her curiosity leads her to challenge Odalie, with explosive results. Though the final twist--the one that should make readers gasp and look back for the clues they missed--is hinted at too often ("this latter discovery lay like a bear trap waiting to spring on me," as Rose tells us) to snap smartly when sprung, Rindell's debut is a cinematic page-turner. Agent: Emily Forland, the Wendy Weil Agency. (May). 368p. Web-Exclusive Review. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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