Lee Trebilcock in the 20th Century

Redemptive love, of a scurrilous type, is the theme of this edgy debut, in which a memorable cast of minor characters orbit Crow's troubled English protagonist. Nineteen-year-old Lee Trebilcock (pronounced ""Tre-Bill-Coe"") is a ""tom-cat with the birds,"" a Swedish pornography enthusiast and a working-class everylad who lives with his dotty mother, Wendy, in a council house in fictitious ""south coastal Chivermouth."" His father took off in 1983, leaving Wendy with an early onset of ""the baskets"" and six-year-old Lee with an excuse for his delinquent behavior. Now grown but still haunted by his father's absence, Lee seems to be on the right track: he works in shelving at Do It Easy, hoping to earn the money to buy his mother's house off the council; and after a juicy dalliance with an ""older bird"" at work, he falls for obese university student Deborah. But then a night of clubbing and heavy petting with his gay friend Hawley leaves Lee shirty and conflicted. In other hands perhaps a tired convention, Lee's repressed homoerotic longing is handled well here. Ever the antihero, he seeks resolution in his Uncle Septor's ""photography club,"" the cover for a gang of hooligans who videotape their racial and homophobic attacks. Crow's full-tilt depiction of Lee's descent into violence at Septor's goading is extreme A Clockwork Orange meets Adrian Mole and written with squirm-inducing acuity. Eventually, the constabularies get involved, setting in motion a too-tidy but nonetheless pleasing surprise ending, in which a repentant Lee finds absolution, both filial and romantic. Crow, an Englishwoman, is sure to gain a foothold here with her rich, idiomatic prose and candid but never gratuitous description of lurid subjects. (Apr. 15)