Jane Smiley’s A Dangerous Business (Knopf 2022) was published in December of last year, but I just got around to reading the uncorrected proof the publisher sent. I know Smiley is a phenomenal writer – Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres are two powerful novels that highlight that talent – but A Dangerous Business was a complete disappointment. It appears cobbled together from other storylines, which gives it a disjointed feel, and the plot and characters are underdeveloped. Such a bummer because the premise with Smiley’s talent should have made this a five-star read. What happened? I’m flummoxed because I appear in the minority with this one.
Set in 1851, the novel follows a young prostitute who, armed with Poe stories and with the help of a female sex worker who only services other females, investigates the disappearance and murders of other prostitutes while juggling a series of clients who range in age, with the youngest being 14, and who are all suspects.
This could have been great. Add about two hundred more pages, give Eliza more substance and flesh, smooth the edges of the cobbled bits so it doesn’t read like paragraphs pulled from other works in progress, and definitely develop Eliza’s relationships with Jean and Olive more. Instead, it’s a skeleton and an unsatisfying read.
A Girl Named Tommi 