A Separate Reality

In present-day Manhattan, a casual reference by his younger boyfriend to the ongoing popularity of Carlos Castaneda sends Mark Grosfeld into a reverie of growing up in Watergate-era Phoenix, Ariz. At 11 Mark is cannon fodder for schoolyard bullies. Mark's attempts to befriend Bruce Waterson, a fellow misfit, fall awry when Bruce's rudeness and crudity go over the top. But Mark secretly sees a psychiatrist; gets "a little extra help with some outdoor stuff," from his father's business associate; and escapes from his crisis of masculinity by studying poetry (and Castaneda) under the tutelage of a kindly teacher. He also suffers the loss of his grandmother. His grandparents, "Nanna" and "Posha" Grosfeld, Connecticut-based beacons of liberal Jewish antiwar politics, were part of FDR's brain trust, and Mark's father attempts to carry that legacy to conservative Phoenix, running for Congress in a vain attempt to impress Posha. The novel plods, but Marshall has a fine ear for schoolyard obscenity and an encyclopedic grasp of pop songs from 1974. (Nov.)