cover image TOWNS WITHOUT RIVERS

TOWNS WITHOUT RIVERS

Michael Parker, . . Morrow, $25 (354pp) ISBN 978-0-380-97860-1

The intertwined wanderings of 25-year-old Eureka Speight, recently released from wrongful imprisonment for her lover's death and anxious to start anew, and her younger brother, Randall, sensitive and complex but unable to weather the harshness of existence, might seem contrived and flat in most novels. In Parker's third, however, they mature into an absorbing narrative that perceptively explores twin searches for identity. After her release from prison, Reka tries to escape her white trash background in Trent, N.C. (the setting of Parker's well-reviewed first novel, Hello, Down There) by taking a job as a door-to-door textbook salesperson in the Midwest, but the job fizzles and she drifts across early 1960s America, ending up in Seattle. Randall leaves a construction job in Norfolk, Va., to search for his lost sister, heading westward after a series of sexual flings in Chicago. The siblings reunite only when they return home to Trent, but they find that a true reunion is impossible because in the course of their travels they have grown apart. Although the two protagonists' confusion and lack of direction becomes vexing at times, their movement across the country frequently resembles certain choreographed dances, beautiful to watch but inscrutable. Parker's lucid yet lyrical style is at its best when his sentences unfurl gracefully. At times, he creates drama from minimal ingredients, as minor spats blossom into rifts. As this novel winds to a melancholy, soulful end, its numerous voyages reveal themselves to be travels toward the same lonely physical and spiritual place. This is an introspective work that should awaken readers' imaginations and their awareness of their humanity. Agent, Elizabeth Kaplan, Ellen Levine Agency. (June)

Forecast:Booksellers who alerted readers to Parker's earlier novels will beat the drums for this one. While the Southern setting is beautifully conveyed, the book transcends its regional base and has universal appeal.