Simon & Schuster
340 pages, $25

Review by Sara Lippmann

The unfortunate case of Dear Lucy is one of poor packaging: square peg, round hole kind of thing. This novel, at its core, tells a twisted, dark story, full of grit and desire, promise and protest and crimes of heart. Sarkissian is a talented and ambitious writer with a natural ear. However, she needed an editor to trim the fat and repetition that bog down the book, and to allow it to be what it seems begging to be: a smart, slim, offbeat tale of longing and difference and love, about how to carve a home in the world when the world shuts you out.

From the outset, the message is muddled. With its sunny colors and whimsical, lighthearted 50s style, the book jacket of Dear Lucy is misleading. This is not a cheerful, breezy narrative about letter writing, chickens or eggs. This is a heartbreaking story of a mentally-challenged young woman whose mother has dumped her on a farm owned by crazy abusive Christians and the friendship she forms with a pregnant teen who has been similarly ostracized. Together, they struggle for independence and understanding. Continue reading →