Laura Lippman: "The Most Dangerous Thing"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-08-22/laura-lippman-most-dangerous-thing
Laura Lippman
Jan Cobb
Five childhood friends and one secret. In the summer of 1978, five kids stumble upon a cabin in the woods. What happens there forever changes their lives. Thirty-two years later, when one of the friends dies, the past comes hurtling back. Author Laura Lippman’s new novel “The Most Dangerous Thing” is set in the same Baltimore neighborhood where she grew up. Lippman went on to spend twenty years as a newspaper reporter, before writing her first novel. The Washington Post calls her “one of the best novelists around, period.” Novelist Laura Lippman on writing, and the lasting power of childhood secrets.
Guests
Laura Lippman
author of sixteen novels; former reporter at The Baltimore Sun; winner of numerous writing awards including the Edgar award for best mystery.
Read an Excerpt
Excerpt from "The Most Dangerous Thing" by Laura Lippman. Copyright 2011 by Laura Lippman. Excerpted here by kind permission of William Morrow/HarperCollinsPublishers:
Comments
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Hi there,
I'm one of nine children and wherever we lived there was always some wonderful and dangerous wooded area where we would go out adventuring! Unfortunately these were places where lives were lost and bodies dumped. The final place where my parents moved us and now currently live in San Antonio has a very large wooded area with giant rocks and tall dry creek beds. We'd name and jump across those giant rocks just as you had when you were a young girl. Another parallel that I would love to point out about our experiences was the true danger of nature and especially water! Not only once but twice when it flooded I fell into the rushing currents of a flooded creek bed that became a torrential force of nature. Being caught in a rapid once time I was rescued by my younger brother and the second time caught in a strong current I was forced under the heavy roots of large oak that was uprooted by the floods and rescued by my military father while scuba divers tried to figure out how to even get to where I was. Since then I've been much more respectful of mother nature but continue to adventure 10 years later.
I very much enjoyed listening to Laura Lippman and have put her latest novel on my "to read" list. So I don't like being negative (and this has nothing to do with Ms. Lippman), but a caller on the show made two very, very sexually vulger words/comments on your show. I was surprised he got them in. In any case, please keep up the good work.
I was absolutely repulsed by the caller "James". First to describe acts of hardcore pornography and gang rape on air, Second to talk about an extreme act of violence like it was just any old secret "kids" have. Laura's recovery was very impressive...but I can't believe you let that slide.
ms. lippman, i understand you are upset that your ancestors owned slaves but really, unless you walked in their shoes you really don't know what went on. the times and morals were different and should be considered.
chances are you had ancestors that were murderers or child molesters; no one gets a pristine past but you have to remember that without them you wouldn't be here today. no one is perfect; they were who they were and chances are if you met them today you would love them regardless, warts and all. that is what makes a family a family.
I am confused. What was the pornographic reference? I remember someone talking about having kids and that they did something to a teacher. Did I miss something? It must have gone right past me. Great interview though.
I was surprised too by the off-color comments about the teacher. But the interesting part about it is you have to admit to some minimal level of familiarity with the subject to even recognize the reference and potentially be offended. I mean these are significantly fringe terms. Maggie and Monica, how do you even know what they meant?? I'm no puritan and I had to look them up myself. Jason, your only fault is likely being a perfect gentleman.
Diane and Laura are class acts and handled it admirably.
This was a total Tyler Durden maneuver on many levels.
"How do you even know what they meant??" I'm 53 years old and the mother of three children, 16, 20 and 22? I'm well-read? I have a PhD in a health field and am familiar with popular culture and slang? I have a wide variety of friends? I see many films, none of them porn? Your interest in my so-called "familiarity with the subject" may titillate you, but I assure you, I lead a sane, sober, and monogamous life. Jason is a creep and a troll. And you, mmond, have too much time on your hands.
Because I'm a 21 year old college student and I am familiar with the sexual slang of my peer group. Because access to hardcore pornography on the internet has changed the way my generation has sex and what young men expect from sexual activity. I am not the "gross" or "perverted" one for understanding the difference in sexual expectations between my generation and yours.