Diamond Sutra

Young Rud Gillette, the taciturn protagonist of this tentative first novel, has a tough time coming to terms with a number of familial stresses: his parents' divorce, his estrangement from his mother, his father's alcoholism and unsuccessful remarriage. As a boy growing up in Canada, Rud internalizes the otherness his peers see in him (he's of Indian descent yet speaks with an English accent). By the time his father commits suicide by disemboweling himself, Rud has grown up to be a gloomy textbook salesman. Not surprisingly, the trauma of his family life has so frozen his emotions that he can't truly fall in love with his longtime girlfriend. Rud begins to thaw, however, when he receives a disturbing message in his mail slot from Gale Harmon, his childhood sweetheart, who conveys that she is so tortured by her own tragic family history that she may try to take her own life. Determined to track her down, Rud journeys to Buddhist retreats across Canada and the U.S. Traveling beside him is the urn that contains his father's remains. Eventually, Rud finds Gale at a zendo in Montana where, supported and inspired by Zen teachings, he finally allows himself to think about his life and his past in a way that makes it possible for him to bury his father's ashes. Hester, who teaches literature and writing at the University of Montana, is an able writer who possesses a sturdy if unspectacular storytelling style. Occasionally, he lets fly with a jarringly British colloquialism (climbing a ladder, Rud ""scooted like a steeplejack up the wonky rungs""). Steadily, he takes the reader on a knowing ride through the rough country of a young man's broken heart. (Apr.)