Wolf Tickets

From the moment that Katrina Nelson is greeted by her counselor, Steven Fox, at the entrance to the medium-security facility where she has been sent for rehabilitation, her well-being and that of the others who live there become matters of anxious concern to the reader. For this is a documentary novel by a man whose own career parallels Steven's and whose compassion makes the sullen, often violent behavior of the girls understandable. They're a racially mixed lot of teenagers, some of them unwed mothers, others street children, all set adrift by mothers with similar histories. Katrina, a feisty 16-year-old, less experienced than her mates, immediately wins Steven's sympathy and tries on her part to help him at his newly organized group sessions with the girls. But their anger, uncertainty and early trauma cannot be dispelled by Steven's sensitive handling of critical situations; riot threatens and, on commencement day, kindled by word of Steven's appointment as director, erupts. Though indifferently written, this novel by the author of The New Life Hotel is at once so knowing and so heartfelt that it will not quickly be forgotten. (November)