Ellen Cooney

Coffee House Press has certainly been double-dosed on caffeine—or something—in the past year. One of our favorite local publishing houses just seems to go from strength to strength. Norah Labiner’s Miniatures got widespread acclaim (and even got thrown up on by the office cat, a special distinction we won’t go into here) and the world seems poised to go nuts over Laurie Foos’ Bingo Under the Crucifix. The latter, together with Ellen Cooney’s The White Palazzo seem to suggest that someone over at Coffee House found the box of hand-buzzers, squirting flowers, and rubber chickens. These books are subtle and hilarious, without being cynical or cruel. Cooney’s novel takes her young heroine on a wild ride from the altar, where she abandons her betrothed, to the backroads of Massachusetts, where she eventually hooks up with a psychic who has been hired to find her. Think of it as a goofball, 21st-century update of Thelma & Louise and an inversion of The Graduate. Is the nation on the verge of a New Sense of Humor? We think it may be one of the few benefits that accrue from single-party rule, and we plan to laugh hard and long, whenever the opportunity presents itself. Amazon Books, (612) 821-9630, amazonbookstorecoop.com