By Alex Kramer
Short stories and novels come together in a symphonic blend of humor and realism when Elizabeth Crane pens words. Her infectious laughter, bubbling up with even the slightest provocation, will make readers and listeners alike believe in the comedic element of her work.
At Prairie Lights at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Iowa City will get the chance to experience the writer reading from her new novel, *The History of Great Things*.
Crane is certainly striving for greatness in her second novel; the plot — or lack thereof — of this nontraditional mother-daughter story cycles and entwines itself between the two characters.
“Plot is something I struggle with because I feel like it’s not ever my focus,” Crane said and laughed. “In this book, [there are] on the surface, two points of view, the mother and the daughter. But it’s very layered because each of them tells the other person’s story — or what they imagined could be the other person’s story — at the same time.”
There is a lot of Iowa in the novel, Crane said, who spoke fondly of Iowa City and Prairie Lights. Both her parents were from Iowa, and she spent a lot of time in the state growing up, though she is from New York.
“I really love writing,” she said, and she has pursued the craft since third grade. “I have enjoyed writing all of my books, but this book had a certain type of a challenge because the characters are very closely based on me and my mom. So in trying to get into my mother’s point of view, knowing that things had not been so easy for her, it was painful at times.”
This reading will be special, as Prairie Lights’ book-buyer Paul Ingram is a longtime fan of hers.
“Elizabeth is marvelously funny and a tremendous writer,” he said. “Her stories are always very humorous, very amusing, and always filled with love.”
Prairie Lights’ events coordinator Kathleen Johnson, who credits Crane with writing one of her favorite books, said the writer is fascinating all around and will give a compelling event.
“She is a rare writer who not only produces work that has a great mixture of darkness and humor along with flat-out strangeness, and yet in person, she’s lovely,” she said. “Sometimes, this high quality of unique and gifted writing is best only appreciated on the page, but Elizabeth Crane is the whole package—smart, nice, interesting, unusual.”
Crane said she enjoys doing readings because it gives her an otherwise nonexistent chance to hear a response.
“A book is a thing most people experience on their own,” she said. “So to get in front of an audience and hear people laugh or have people come up to you and say, ‘Oh that was really moving to me’ or ‘I really related to that’ or whatever it is, is a wonderful thing.”
WORDS
Elizabeth Crane Reading
Where: Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Admission: Free
