Review of the Day: Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky
Near the end of what I found an odd and entertaining novel, one of the characters sums up the story: “You’re going to write one of those true-crime stories. It’s about a girl who wants her husband dead. This girl is so young and innocent and sweet that you know she’ll never do a thing about it, but then things work out so well for her that you have to think maybe this girl is actually … what you’d call an evil genius,” Oshetsky’s novel is about a young woman in 1970s San Francisco who works for At&T: Back then the phone was so important that we who worked in the Resident Billing Office were like harsh cold gods. If you didn’t pay on time, or if we didn’t like your tone, or if you disrespected us, then we could disconnect your phone as fast as a fingersnap and you’d be dead to the world. We called it ripping your lips. We’d say: “Don’t get testy with me, Mister Customer! If you don’t pay up by Friday, I’m going to rip your lips!” … In those days a job at the phone company was the el...
