Soaring debuts

First-time novelists hatch stories that take flight

Patti Thorn, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, December 9, 2005

Anyone who watches the best-seller list lately will tell you that birds of a feather tend to flock together. The list often resembles a members-only club, with the same names appearing over and over. But what if you're tired of reading novels by Nora Roberts, Michael Crichton, James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell?

This year, as always, the publishing world has hatched a host of fledgling titles. These works by first-time authors don't often show up on the best-seller list - they rarely receive the amount of publicity necessary to make that happen - but many are nothing short of stunning.

To help you find those fictional debuts of note, today we offer our annual Great Debuts feature. Our critics have screened more than 80 first novels released in 2005 (all titles that haven't been reviewed on these pages during the course of the year).

In this section, we bring you the best of the bunch, novels worthy of the most seasoned authors. Together, they offer testament to the talent that's out there, just waiting to be discovered.

For novels that take flight, read on.

Our special thanks...

• To freelance critics Joan Hinkemeyer, Verna Noel Jones, Vicky Uhland and Justin Matott, who volunteered countless hours to screen the flood of first-novels released this year. We are truly in their debt.

And a posthumous thanks to freelancer Ed Halloran, whose work also is represented here and who passed away this year. He was a passionate advocate of this feature and is already sorely missed.

Alternative Atlanta

By Marshall Boswell.

Delacorte, 324 pages, $22.

• Plot in a nutshell: It's 1996, and Atlanta is getting ready for the Olympics. Gerald Brinkman is 30, a grad school dropout and rock critic for an alternative weekly. While his contemporaries seem to have gotten on with their lives, he's behind in his rent; the love of his life has just gotten married - and now a married friend whom he's had a crush on for a couple of years seems to be coming on to him; his father's invaded his apartment and seems to have settled in for the duration; and, in between writing reviews for groups with names like Sewer Pipe and getting as stoned as he did in his student days, Gerald's attempting to prepare for a job interview with a major music publication in New York, and not doing all that well with any of it - except the getting stoned part.

• Sample of prose: "Of course, Gerald could always quit smoking pot. He could make a solemn vow never to get high while listening to new records or while watching a local rock group he has been assigned to review. He knows that. He knows that he should quit. In fact, he thinks about quitting every time he gets stoned... I SHOULD STOP DOING THIS, he tells himself, his hands trembling with excitement. THIS IS RIDICULOUS. But the mere anticipation of that glorious transition from flat digital clarity to fuzzy analog bliss always goads him into taking that first long drag, the smoke burning the lining of his throat and swirling around his lungs. And no matter how bad he feels the next morning, or how paranoid he grows an hour or two later as each chime of the telephone sends his heart racing into his mouth with the nameless and wholly irrational panic that every true pothead knows as intimately as a drunkard knows the shakes, he nevertheless feels, the next evening, utterly convinced that such self-lacerating side effects are entirely worth the pleasure of that first happy moment when you realize, with a stupid dreamy grin, that you're like, totally baked."

• Author reminds me of: No one in particular from the 20th century. So, let's just say we have another Boswell and let it go at that.

• Best reason to read: Boswell's characters are complex and compelling - particularly Gerald's whacked-out father, who steals the show.

Ed Halloran

Flight

By Ginger Strand

(Simon & Schuster, 311 pages, $23).

• Plot in a nutshell: Flight is used literally and figuratively in this sensitive novel of family dynamics. Flying has consumed the life of Will Gruen, a pilot facing mandatory retirement, and flight in another sense has lurked in the minds of his wife, forced to relocate at her husband's whims, and his two daughters who fled from their rural Michigan home - only to return for a family wedding.

• Sample of prose: "Will had big thoughts and acted on them, with no regard for what anyone else might think. It was like that when he joined the Air Force . . . or when he bought the farm in Michigan, uprooting them from their nice suburb. Will was driven to re-make the world, for no better reason than that he could."

• Author reminds me of: Louise Erdrich, who shares Strand's ability to portray ordinary families with compassionate skill and graceful evocative style.

• Best reason to read: Strand's poet's eye enables her to capture entire experiences and emotions with small, telling details. She has successfully plumbed the depths of the complex emotions swirling through the modest, but engaging, Gruen family.

Joan Hinkemeyer

The Great Stink

By Clare Clark

(Harcourt, 368 pages, $25).

• Plot in a nutshell: In the mid-1800s, London is a mess. Sweeping the city are epidemics of diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera, largely because the city's drinking water is mostly drawn from the Thames, the same place where the city's waste is dumped. In essence, London is poisoning itself, as highly toxic gases rise from the sewers, corrupting the air people breathe.

Detail-oriented junior surveyor William May is called upon to help transform London's ineffectual sewer system into one of the engineering wonders of the world. But May has his own problems. He still suffers mightily from physical and mental injuries dealt on the battlefields of the Crimean War, from which he recently has returned. As May struggles with his sanity in the dark depths and disgusting stink of the underground, his life is disrupted by a murder of which he is accused.

May's mind is so fogged and confused at times that he isn't sure whether he is innocent or guilty. His wife, Polly, is becoming fearful of his strange actions and, at work, May is surrounded by unscrupulous men.

• Sample of prose: "Rawlinson glanced over his half-moon spectacles at the private in front of him, conscious for the thousandth time of the smooth sheen of his own black coat, the starched white of his collar. He had been in Russia almost two weeks and still it shocked him, the deplorable state of the men he encountered here. This one was a particularly sorry specimen. He was so spare that the bones seemed to shine white through the skin of his face and he trailed the thin sour reek of sickness and squalor . . . He had, thought Rawlinson, the appearance of a lion too long in captivity. Beside him the rigid captain in his scarlet coat made a reluctant keeper. No doubt he would prefer an animal more reflective of his impeccable military bearing, a fine Arabian stallion, perhaps, or a Bengal tiger."

• Author reminds me of: Stephen King, in her ability to craft a compelling scene through vivid writing, and of Charles Dickens, in the way she weaves London's grimy historic past into a riveting story filled with characters that reach out and touch you.

• Best reason to read: If you can get past the unappealing title, this impressive novel offers a unique historic view of Victorian London that few Americans know. With the sewers as a surprising backdrop, Clark cleverly interlaces a dark world with highly flawed and fascinating people.

Verna Noel Jones

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

Laila Lalami

(Algonquin Books, 208 pages, $21.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: From separate walks of life, four Moroccan main characters' stories are linked in their desperation to illegally immigrate to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar to find better employment and better conditions for themselves and their families. The book opens with the treacherous journey in a raft, and focuses on Faten, Noura, Halima and Aziz, then moves backwards to the events that brought them there.

The story follows their lives as they struggle to make their way in a strange land combating prejudice and squalor. As usual, when trying to escape one's problems, other problems are created.

• Sample of prose: "Larbi Amrani didn't consider himself a superstitious man, but when the prayer beads that hung on his rearview mirror broke, he found himself worrying that this could be an omen. His mother had given him the sandalwood beads on his college graduation, shortly before her death, advising him to use them often and well. At first Larbi had carried the beads in his pocket, fingered them after every prayer, but as the years went by he'd used them with decreasing regularity, until one day they ended up as decoration in his car. Now they lay scattered, amber dots on the black floor mats."

• Author reminds me of: T. C. Boyle in his wonderful book The Tortilla Curtain, in the way he was able to capture the plight and desperation of illegal immigrants, allowing readers inside their heads and lives.

• Best reason to read: This well-written "journal" is a reminder that, in spite of religious and cultural differences, we all have the same wants and needs under the skin - a timely topic in this age when the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina have taken center stage.

Justin Matott

Incendiary

By Chris Cleave

(Alfred A. Knopf, 288 pages, $22.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: Written as a letter to Osama bin Laden, Incendiary tells the story of a young, working-class Londoner who lost her husband and son to a massive terrorist attack. Cleave uses a unique writing style to portray the woman's grief, compassion, street smarts and irrepressible humor in the face of horrific tragedy. The book takes the reader through a year of the woman's life and, peripherally, through the lives of other Londoners forever changed by bin Laden's acts.

• Sample of prose: "In my dream Osama I wrote you this letter and you read it and then you went off behind a rock where your men couldn't see you and you cried and you wished you hadn't killed my boy. It made you too sad now. You didn't feel angry anymore you just felt tired."

• Author reminds me of: Cleave's is an original voice; I can't think of any other author's work his prose resembles.

• Best reason to read: Incendiary stands out among the growing number of 9/11- influenced novels. Cleave's style conveys raw grief, but its levity prevents the reader from wallowing in the tragedy. A readable, personal take on 21st-century terrorism.

Vicky Uhland

Little Fugue

By Robert Anderson

(Ballantine Books, 384 pages, $24.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: This book explores Sylvia Plath's post mortem celebrity vs. her husband's (England's poet laureate Ted Hughes) ongoing career - as seen through the eyes of the fictional Robert Anderson, a Columbia-educated fiction writer whose life is transformed by reading the Ariel poems. It's a tale that's been told before, but this one has some some major twists that take the narrative from England to New York, and back again.

• Sample of prose: "Sylvia seems to have left detailed instructions to posterity regarding the way in which she would like to be unremittingly psychoanalyzed in the echo chamber of Ted's conscience and also in the dominion of Western literary studies. She was not only responsible for her own death; she selected the subterfuge of her burial site. She killed herself in pursuit of neither rest nor peace, nor even understanding, since recognition hardly ever equals understanding."

• Author reminds me of: Jean-Paul Sartre. Little Fugue is a superb existentialist novel.

• Best reason to read: Anderson has obviously done his homework, and he moves swiftly into and out of the minds of Hughes, Plath, and Hughes' mistress, Assia Gutmann Weivill. This, by itself, is a major contribution, because it underscores the fact that poets still matter. But the highlight of this book is a young photographer named Sabbath - the love of the narrator's life. Anderson has created a willful and completely fascinating female who'd give Sartre's Ivich a run for her money.

Ed Halloran

The Madness of Love

By Katherine Davies

(Random House, 255 pages, $13.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: On impulse, Valentina cuts her long hair to masquerade as a gardener for Leo, a melancholy musician living on an overgrown estate near the seaside town of Illerwick. There she meets Melody, an English teacher, who is grieving for her brother's recent suicide. Leo loves Melody, as does an aging alcoholic headmaster and Fitch, a teenager helping on the estate. Many misunderstandings are alternately hilarious or sad before everything is well sorted at Leo's grand garden party finale.

• Sample of prose: "The car slices through the cold air, speeding through iced darkness. Melody's stomach is a tight knot. The dinner was awkward, the hotel raucous, hot and merry. He'd tried to tell her about the musical instruments of Borneo. His gestures, his flailing arms, had embarrassed her. His hair had embarrassed her. He had run his fingers through it, transferring butter and crumbs from his side plate into its coils."

• Author reminds me of: Sophie Powell's style in The Mushroom Man, but the plot is a contemporary re-telling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

• Best reason to read: This is a fast-paced, witty tragic-comedy that might best be summarized by saying: All's well that ends well - and the journey is exceedingly enjoyable, as well.

Joan Hinkemeyer

The Mayor of Lexington Avenue

By James Sheehan

(Yorkville, 420 pages, $14.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: In balmy Bass Creek, Fla., a young convenience store clerk named Rudy, with an IQ of 75, bumbles into the life of loose and seductive Lucy Ochoa, hoping to get a little action. She invites him to her house - only to suffer fatal consequences when her jealous lover sees Rudy leaving, slits her throat and skips town.

Police Detective Sergeant Wesley Brume arrives on the scene and, in his haste to make a name for himself, frames Rudy, who eventually ends up on death row. During Rudy's 10-year stretch on death row, those who try to work on the case turn up dead.

Enter Jack Tobin, a wealthy Miami lawyer, who is coincidentally moving to Bass Creek. Tobin gets involved in Rudy's case after realizing that his best friend in New York, Mikey, was Rudy's estranged biological father. Jack owes Rudy's father a great debt because of indiscretions from childhood days. Thus, he's compelled to wade in to save Rudy. Soon Jack is fighting a criminal lawyer who is Mafia-connected and will do anything to get his clients off, including murder.

Let the fireworks begin.

• Sample of prose: "Cobb County was located at the northwest corner of Lake Okeechobee in the south central part of the state, where the word 'cracker' didn't refer to something you ate."

• Author reminds me of: Early John Grisham mixed with a dash of David Baldacci's legal and character development and Patricia Cornwell's ability to move a story along at a brisk pace.

• Best reason to read: Mayor tackles the controversial issue of capital punishment in a flawed legal system by putting a human face on it. Sheehan could have resorted to a didactic position, but instead has drawn a thoughtful narrative with engaging characters and an engrossing plot line. This is the kind of novel you want to curl up with and read straight through - a fast-paced, dandy debut.

Justin Matott

Norma Ever After

By Nancy Baxter

(Ballantine, 320 pages, $13.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: Dale grew up with an inferiority complex, the result of looking more like Betty Boop than Cindy Crawford. When her father dies and leaves her a pile of cash, she decides to escape her humdrum life with a trip to her father's favorite place, Scotland's Orkney Islands. After she falls in love with a local artist, she's forced to confront her lifelong fears about her inadequacies.

• Sample of prose: "The cute guy would always be off with Ashley or Jessica or one of the other girls whose mothers had not cursed them with a bad name or used up all the good genes on their popular and happy sisters."

• Author reminds me of: The anti-Barbara Cartland

• Best reason to read: For those who love romances but get nauseous at their purple prose, this book offers a rare treat: a literate love story featuring a heroine who changes and grows as satisfyingly as her counterparts in "serious" novels.

Vicky Uhland

Stop that girl

By Elizabeth McKenzie

(Random House, 207 pages, $22.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: This lively coming-of-age novel follows Ann from the time she is an imaginative 8-year-old until adulthood. Structured as a series of chapters, each detailing a new age and new adventures, the book observes Ann's role in her nontraditional family, her adaptation to her crazy grandmother called Dr. Frost, and her relationships with friends, boyfriends and employers.

• Sample of prose: "Now I know we'll never go to the back-to-school sales and get the white vinyl boots everyone's wearing. I want them more than I've ever wanted anything. Mom says no, partly because of my misdeed, but also because my feet can't breathe. I want to go shopping, but we never do; no matter how much I squirm and stand lopsided, my mother measures me and makes my clothes instead. They're made out of strange fabrics . . . and they hang on me like sandwich boards. Luckily my friends think I wear them to be funny."

• Author reminds me of: Pat Devoto, who wrote the spritely coming-of-age novel My Last Days as Roy Rogers.

• Best reason to read: Ann is an engaging heroine with keen observations and self-deprecating humor. Through her, McKenzie explores the myriad dynamics of family and friendship in evocative and graceful prose.

Joan Hinkemeyer

Tokyo Cancelled

By Rana Dasgupta

(Black Cat, 400 pages, $13).

• Plot in a nutshell: Thirteen passengers are stranded at an airport on their way to Tokyo. To pass the night, they tell each other stories that take the form of modern fairy tales: Robert De Niro's son masters the transubstantiation of matter and uses it against his enemies; an Indian billionaire trades his son's life to save his daughter; a wingless bird leads a Ukrainian merchant to a lost lover; a Parisian changeling sacrifices his immortality for a friend. Each story is riveting and transformatory, leading the reader into geographically and morally diverse mini-worlds.

• Sample of prose: "The moon was so bright that the streets seemed to be bathed in an eerie kind of underexposed daylight that was even more pellucid for the absolute quiet."

• Author reminds me of: A.S. Byatt.

• Best reason to read: It's not often you come across a collection of modern fairy tales, particularly ones that are so well written and imaginative.

Vicky Uhland

The Traveler

By John Twelve Hawks

(Doubleday, 400 pages, $24.95).

• Plot in a nutshell: A secret society known as the Tabula aims to control mankind using the invisible technology surrounding the modern world - "the grid." In the past, the Tabula has attempted to eradicate Travelers (those who can travel to other dimensions a la Matrix-style out of body experiences) because of their threat to the grid's goals. But they now believe that Travelers, almost extinct, can help them reach the next step of evolutionary and technological advances, and, thus, they must find the last two Travelers and bring them in.

Meanwhile, a group known as the Harlequins are the protectors of the Travelers. Maya, who previously renounced her role as a Harlequin, is trying to live a normal life when her father summons her to Prague, and instructs her to leave her life in London and find the brothers who are now in grave danger and must be saved in order to save society.

When a man hunting the brothers for the Tabula follows Maya to the United States, all hell breaks loose.

• Sample of prose: "Vicki decided to make a fruit salad while Hollis fried grilled-cheese sandwiches. She liked standing at the counter and slicing up the strawberries. It was uncomfortable to sit next to Maya. The Harlequin looked exhausted, but she couldn't seem to relax. Vicki thought that it would be painful to go through life always being ready to kill, always expecting to be attacked . . . 'You told me a few things about Travelers when we were in the van,' Gabriel said to Maya. 'But what about the rest of it? Tell me about the Harlequins.' Maya adjusted the cord on her sword's carrying case. 'Harlequins protect Travelers. That's all you need to know.'"

• Author reminds me of: George Orwell meets The Matrix meets Minority Report meets Dean Koontz.

• Best reason to read: In the same wondrous way Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife) allows readers to suspend disbelief and become fully engrossed in a fantastical novel, Hawks accomplishes the total immersion of his reader. His debut is a fast-paced, exciting thriller, postulating the potential of living in a high-tech age, where government, business and anyone else with enough of an interest can control your destiny and everyday life. Full of action, suspense, intriguing characters and numerous plot twists, this book will grip even those who don't enjoy fantasy or speculative fiction.

Justin Matott