The “prom mom” of the title is Amber Glass. The year is 1997, Baltimore, Maryland. Amber has a mad crush on Joe Simpson. Joe needs to improve his grades to get into the right college. Amber, who is 16, has been tutoring him. Joe is one of the popular guys at their high school.
Amber is a bit of a wallflower. She’s smart, she would do anything to be with Joe. Joe doesn’t trifle with scruples. He has a steady girlfriend; his tutor Amber is practically offering herself to him so how can he resist? He doesn’t. When Joe breaks up with his girlfriend right before prom he ends up taking Amber as his date.
At prom Joe moons over his ex-girlfriend. Upset, Amber retreats to the hotel, not feeling well. Did she even know she was pregnant with Joe’s baby? We cannot be sure. Soon the entire world learns about terrible Amber who had their baby that night in the hotel room.
The tabloids labeled her “Prom Mom.” Joe became the “Cad Dad.” Fast forward to the year 2020. Joe still lives in Baltimore. He’s an ambitious real estate developer now married to lovely Meredith, a successful plastic surgeon. They are living their dreams although Joe still has that wandering eye. He simply cannot help himself.
Meanwhile Amber Glass, who had been living quietly in New Orleans (coincidentally Meredith’s hometown), has just moved back to Baltimore. Amber is now an authority on outsider art. She has had an art gallery in Louisiana and she decided to open another one in Baltimore.
Amber obsessively trawls social media for knowledge about Joe and will recognize him. Joe remains blissfully unaware of Amber’s return. He’s having a steamy affair with a young woman who appears to be developing a fatal attraction to him. We are cruising along here with three points of view: Amber’s, Joe’s and Meredith’s.
We think we understand these characters. We believe we know them. We don’t. Lippman explains: “It is really important to me that I make my characters a little uncomfortable.” She means uncomfortable for the reader. Despite their past horrors at the prom Amber and Joe are being drawn inexorably together, to collide eventually like a pair of doomed death stars.
You can listen to my interview with Laura Lippman at 10:30 a.m. today on WYSO (91.3FM).
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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