King, Lily

PERSONAL: Married; children: two daughters. Education: Graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1985; Syracuse University, M.A., 1991.

ADDRESSES: Home—ME.

CAREER: Writer. Taught English in a bilingual high school.

AWARDS, HONORS: Raymond Carver Prize for Fiction, Syracuse University; MacDowell Colony fellowship, 1995; Discover Great New Writers Award, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1999, and Whiting Writer's Award, both for The Pleasing Hour.

WRITINGS:

The Pleasing Hour, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 1999.

The English Teacher: A Novel, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to publications, including Ploughshares.

SIDELIGHTS: Lily King's award-winning debut novel was The Pleasing Hour. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that the novel is "expertly constructed, full of surprises, superbly paced, and sweetly sad," adding that "King's book hardly reads like a first novel." Library Journal reviewer Shirley E. Havens called it "deft and moving." GraceAnne A. DeCandido wrote in Booklist that "with longing and sweetness, this subtle and gorgeously crafted novel takes us into a tangle of family affections."

At age seventeen, the central character, Rosie, conceives a child for her married sister, who is unable to have children following a hysterectomy. After the baby is born, Rosie leaves her home in Vermont to become an au pair for Parisians Nicole and Marc Tivot, who live on a houseboat on the Seine with their three children. Most of the story is told in Rosie's voice, but King uses third-person narration to express the views of the children and their rather distant mother, who experienced a great loss in her earlier life. Ploughshares contributor Jessica Treadway wrote that King "pulls it off masterfully; the shifts feel not imposed on the story's structure but organic to it, and add a layer of complexity uncommon to first novels."

Odile, at sixteen the oldest of Rosie's charges, is becoming aware of her lesbian orientation. The younger children are Lola and Guillaume; the latter hopes to become a priest. Rosie becomes very fond of her charges, and also of Marc, with whom she has a sexual encounter during a holiday in Spain. Treadway called the book's bullfighting scene "one of the strongest scenes in the book." Treadway added: "In the space of eight pages, we see how the blood sport affects each Tivot child on a profound level." Rosie escapes the complications of her life with the Tivots by accepting a position as companion to Nicole's elderly aunt in the south of France. Once there, she learns more of Nicole's past, including her mother's affair with a German soldier and eventual suicide.

Times Literary Supplement contributor Sylvia Brownrigg commented that King "is a careful, intelligent writer." Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Mark Rozzo wrote that King "tells this haunting tale of surrogate histories and maternal betrayals with a narrative that slips among time, place, and points of view." Beth E. Anderson in the Library Journal declared that "King has taken some unusual elements and worked them into a believable, beautifully etched tale."

In The English Teacher: A Novel, King tells the story of two families battling difficult situations as they are thrust together after marriage. English teacher Vida Avery has immersed herself in a world of books and literature but eventually marries a local Maine widower with children. Vida's son Peter looks forward to a family life but is rejected along with Vida by his new siblings, who are still grieving over their birth mother's death. Vida has her own secret past that Peter does not even know about. She becomes an alcoholic in response to the oppressiveness of her new family life. As Vida teachers her class about the classic novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, King leads the reader to understand the parallels between the story of Tess and the teacher.

In a review of The English Teacher in the Library Journal, Reba Leiding wrote: "The author expertly weaves together diverse themes." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the author "renders Vida's seething withholding in a free, direct style." Calling the novel "a keen and forthright study of the inner workings of a family circle," Austin Chronicle contributor Marrit Ingman went on to note: "King writes convincingly from a shifting third-person omniscient perspective, crafting a panoramic view of the book's events and evoking the reader's sympathies." Deborah Donovan, writing in Booklist, commented that the author "writes with subtle clarity, displaying an intuitive understanding of the vulnerable psyches of teenagers." School Library Journal contributor Susanne Bardelson wrote: "The author's style is unsentimental and direct, and the compelling story draws readers right in."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Austin Chronicle, September 9, 2005, Marrit Ingman, review of The English Teacher: A Novel.

Booklist, August, 1999, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 2029; July, 2005, Deborah Donovan, review of The English Teacher, p. 1898.

Christian Science Monitor, September 30, 1999, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 21.

Entertainment Weekly, August 26, 2005, Abby West, review of The English Teacher, p. 66.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1999, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 1157; June 1, 2005, review of The English Teacher, p. 605.

Library Journal, July, 1999, Beth E. Anderson, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 132; February 1, 2000, Shirley E. Havens, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 140; June 15, 2005, Reba Leiding, review of The English Teacher, p. 58.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 26, 1999, Mark Rozzo, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 10.

People, September 12, 2005, Francine Prose, review of The English Teacher, p. 59.

Ploughshares, fall, 1999, Jessica Treadway, "Bookshelf," p. 218.

Publishers Weekly, August 2, 1999, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 74; June 20, 2005, review of The English Teacher, p. 54.

School Library Journal, December, 1999, Frances Reiher, review of The Pleasing Hour, p. 164; April, 2006, Susanne Bardelson, review of The English Teacher, p. 168.

Times Literary Supplement, October 29, 1999, Sylvia Brownrigg, "Mastering French," p. 22.

Writer's Digest, October, 1999, "Lily King," p. 12.

ONLINE

Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (August 27, 2006), Luan Gaines, review of The English Teacher.

Grove/Atlantic Web site, http://www.groveatlantic.com/ (August 27, 2006), brief profile of author.