The Messy Lives of Book People

by Phaedra Patrick

This book is about a woman, Liv Green, who is working several demanding jobs as a cleaner while her husband struggles to keep their publishing company afloat. She is frustrated and exhausted worrying about how the family will be able to afford university costs for their two boys. One of her jobs is as a cleaner for a famous author, Essie Starling, an author she adores.

Essie is working on her 20th book and has a tight deadline.  She has been a recluse for many years, much to the dismay of her fans and her publisher.  Essie doesn't speak to Liv much, she ignores her pretty much the same way all her employers and the people she encounters in her cleaning jobs do.  At times Essie disappears from her apartment giving no explanation.

Liv's father was a literature prof, he has died in a car accident.

One day Essie starts to talk to Liv about writing and gives the indication she would like to speak to her more about that.  Liv is excited about this opportunity but before things can go any further she is contacted by a lawyer.  The lawyer tells her that Essie died during/following? a surgery.  In her will she has specified that Liv should complete her final book but that her death should be kept secret until the book is submitted to the publisher on Nov. 1st.

Liv and the lawyer are flabbergasted by the will.  Liv quits her other cleaning jobs and tells her husband that she is now helping Essie as an assitant and will get some more money.  She then takes on th task of reading the draft, incomplete manuscript and realizes that Essie had lost her spark for writing.  So Liv starts making some minor changes to the book plus has the huge task of finishing the last eight chapters since all Essie's books have the same number of chapters.

While Liv is working on the book a reporter starts sneaking around trying to get an interview with Essie.  Liv thinks she has managed to keep her away but the reporter keeps digging and trying to contact people who know Essie for background info.  At the same time Liv starts to do some research about Essie to try to find out what inspired her and why Nov 1st is such an important date for her, other than that she won a prestigious award on that day but immediately after became a recluse.

Liv dresses in Essie's clothes and even goes to a book fair in Croatia pretendting that Essie is there with her.  This is a ridiculous part of the book.... what would make her think to do this.  There is a lot of suspicion that Essie is never seen and the hotel room points out that Essie's room is slept in but not hers.  The reporter also tracks down this info.

Once she is close to finishing the book the lawyer tells Liv what Essie has left her, a small student flat where Essie presumably lived as a university student.  Liv assumes this is where Essie fled when she wanted to get away to write.  As she goes through the things in the apartment she discovers that Essie was a student of her father and was in love with him.

Then she is able to put 2 and 2 together.  Her father died on Nov 1st, after he rejected Essie's desire to have a relationship.  Essie won the literary award on Nov 1st but on that day she found out her current husband was having an affair with another woman and is leaving her.  Now she knows why Essie hired her (she had mentioned her father in her resume letter).  She is the daughter of the man Essie loved and could never have.

Liv decides to end the final book, not with the heroine riding off with a lover, but deciding to make her own life.  A much more satisfying ending.

This was an interesting story, at first you wonder what would have possessed Essie to choose Liv as her ghostwriter. The other question is how did Essie know she was going to die and make the stipulation for Liv to finish her book? Did she have a premonition, given her failing health?