We’ll get right to the point:
Ann Hood’s The Obituary Writer seemed like a good idea.
It wasn’t.
Obituaries are my guilty pleasure. I hear they are the grunt work of newspaper writing, but it’s grunt work I might just like to try. Except for coming up with adjectives to describe all the relatives. “Fond aunt of . . . . Loving grandmother of . . . Dear sister of . . .” Some newspapers must have a policy about gilding all the family love. Then again, maybe fond, loving, dear feelings run deep at funerals. It’s time to forget the year that Uncle Ronald came to Thanksgiving half-plastered, or the sore feelings over who got the new trike for Christmas.
But, back to Hood’s story.
Every character felt contrived.
Would that she had stalked the obit pages of her own newspaper for inspiration. Professional trumpet players, beloved high school history teachers, zoo volunteers, nuns, the man who sculpted TCU’s Horned Frog, “one of the most loved sculptures on college campuses” — what a parade of humanity! These pages pulse with human interest. They pulse with people who . . . who no longer have a pulse, darn it. Alzheimer’s, diabetes and lung disease have taken them away.
But some writer could make them come alive again.
Maybe even Hood.
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Chicken Veggie Fajitas are as colorful as all these people we’ve been talking about.
Marinating is a big flavor secret, but you have to plan ahead. These fajitas are for people who forgot to plan.
Whip up your marinade, drizzle it over the chicken and veggies, stick it all under the broiler and dinner will be ready so fast, you’ll barely have time to make the salad.
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