Cowboy Angst-C

Filtering a coming-of-age story through the prisms of country music and rural western life, Emmons's crafty debut novel is at once hip, funny, compassionate and engaging. Narrator Dennis McCance is a Montana native who temporarily forsakes his passion to become a country-and-western drummer in order to follow his father's footsteps by attending law school. But when Dennis drops out after the first semester without telling his family, his return to Big Sky country looks problematic at best, so he decides to move to Austin with his band, called ``Cowboy Angst,'' whose lead singer is his erstwhile girlfriend, Janey Bowman (aka Montana Wildhack). This story line is engaging enough, but it's the author's sly humor, skillful characterization and attention to detail that separates this novel from the coming-of-age pack. Dennis is a sweetly cynical, wisecracking delight, and the portrayals of the cagey Montana, Dennis's repressed brother, Miles, and the rest of the McCance clan are equally entertaining. Emmons alternates descriptions of rural life in Montana with a hilarious account of his school days at Colorado State, effectively conveying his love for the region as well as for those who play and listen to country music. While the change in tone that marks the violent confrontation between Miles and Dennis at novel's end is jarring, Emmons's first effort is a winner nearly all the way through. Author tour; British, translation, dramatic rights: Ellen Levine. (Jan.)