cover image In the Family Way

In the Family Way

Tommy Hays. Random House (NY), $19.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-375-50211-8

A snapshot of a Southern boy's coming-of-age in 1960s South Carolina, Hays's second novel cleverly uses the turbulence of the decade to contextualize one family's problems but never lets the drama of the era overwhelm his story. Ten-year-old, overweight Jeru Lamb is confused and guilt-ridden over his eight-year-old brother Mitchell's recent death. Mitchell was attacked and killed by a dog belonging to a neighbor, a black man, and for Jeru, the difficult work of parsing out changing race relations begins. Other things are changing, too: his mother has converted to Christian Science and is expecting another child against the advice of doctors (""`Death,' she becomes fond of repeating, `is the ultimate illusion'""); his father quits his copywriting job to write the novel he types furiously in the basement; his best friend's parents are getting divorced; and one afternoon, the smartest girl in his class, skinny and poor Norma Jones, suddenly slips him a note that reads, ""I am your half-sister."" It's quite a world for one boy to navigate, where the metamorphoses of his family bring as many dramatic joys as traumas. Jeru desperately misses his dead brother, but he warms to his family's new dimensions; besides Norma, a new baby sister is born. Jeru's ingenuousness and wry humor are particularly endearing; Hays (Sam's Crossing) avoids succumbing to the temptation to imbue his narrator with an older-than-his-years sensibility. Jeru's actions are frequently impulsive, na ve, and occasionally insensitive (""Uncle Clem says some Negroes are just no 'count,"" he blurts out to the family's black housekeeper as they pass a homeless man). The welcome result is a believable young hero grappling with family life in a new way. This richly textured story triumphs with its multifaceted characters and genuinely affectionate sensitivity. Agent, Jennifer Hengen at Sterling Lord Literistic. (July)