Goldengrove

By Mary J. Elkins, Special to the Rocky

Published September 25, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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* Fiction. By Francine Prose. Harpers, $24.95. Grade: A-

Plot in a nutshell: In her 15th fiction title, Prose teases out the threads of human connections as they play out under extraordinary circumstances.

Margaret, a beautiful, talented young woman on the edge of adulthood and preparing to leave home for college, accidentally drowns one idyllic summer afternoon while boating on a lake with her 13-year-old sister, Nico. Nico is the narrator of this novel. She is our guide through the haze of her own grief and that of her parents, whose sufferings render them inaccessible to Nico and to each other.

Before the accident, Nico played the role of go-between for her sister and a young man of whom their parents disapproved. Nico pretended to be at the movies with Margaret when the lovers were off somewhere together. Now the boyfriend has turned toward her with his own terrible grief, and her confusion deepens.

"Goldengrove" is the name of the independent bookstore owned by Nico and Margaret's father, and the elegiac poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which as its source, sets the mood of the novel.

Sample of prose: "Margaret's death had shaken us, like three dice in a cup, and spilled us out with new faces in unrecognizable combinations. We forgot how we used to live in our house, how we'd passed the time when we lived there. We could have been sea creatures stranded on the beach, puzzling over an empty shell that reminded us of the ocean."

Pros: Prose is a gifted writer, as the quoted passage shows. The novel moves quickly, and Nico is an entirely credible narrator.

Cons: There is a slight absence of surprise in this novel. It plays out smoothly and in expected ways. Some readers might regret the lack of narrative suspense.

Final word: Goldengrove is a quiet, meditative novel imbued with understanding and sympathy for all the human beings involved.

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