Mona Simpson: Casebook

We don't wish to know our parents are fallible - at any age. In Mona Simpson's new novel, Casebook (Knopf), the protagonist Miles is fascinated by his parents to the point of being a private investigator into their lives but he only discovers what he most doesn't want to know. He watches as his parents divorce and his mother begins a relationship with someone new. His friend Hector joins in his snooping, and they write a comic-book of their discoveries which they title Two Sleuths, and which becomes wildly popular. In the process, they learn that a comic (or a novel) has allusions and, by extension, a life beyond itself.

Read an excerpt from Casebook.