cover image Replacing Dad

Replacing Dad

Shelley Fraser Mickle. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, $16.95 (266pp) ISBN 978-1-56512-017-4

In her second novel, the author of The Queen of October tells a refreshingly sweet story of a newly divorced woman struggling to keep her family together. Linda Marsh's husband, George, principal of the only public school in Palm Key, Fla., has left her for the young fifth-grade teacher. At 36, with neither job experience nor a college degree, Linda must find a way to support her three children. Mickle's easy, forthright style transforms a familiar tale into winning fiction. The narrative alternates between Linda's point of view and that of her 15-year-old son Drew; both are so honest and sincere that the reader can't help but be drawn into their lives. Although set in the present, the novel harks back to a time when divorce and single motherhood were somehow less brutal on women and children; such ultracontemporary concerns of single motherhood as AIDS or drugs do not appear. Life is still relatively simple in a tiny town where the one traffic light is turned on only during peak tourist season. Linda's problems are relatively low-key: the man repairing her roof makes a pass at her; her four-year-old gets a rock stuck up his nose; Drew smashes her car into a Mercedes owned by the new town doctor, who happens to be single and needs an office assistant. The book's title pretty much gives away its satisfying, plausible ending, which in less skilled hands might have seemed naive and sentimental. (May)