Milkweed

Born on a North Dakota farm just after the turn of the century and cut adrift early by the murder of her parents, the uncompromising Susan May McIntire, protagonist of Gardner's second novel (after Keeping Warm) passes through 70 years holding others at a distance. Her most precious possession is a leather-bound encyclopedia set (a wedding gift) which she carts to and from a disappointing marriage that spawns three children: Frankie, who dies young, runaway Johnnie and stolid daughter Mar. Even when the novel's viewpoint shifts-to her needy son-in-law, to a tormented family dog-Susan's remove remains constant. Gardner's poetic imagery and colorful vignettes of lives at once fantastic and pedestrian are kept earthbound by an oddly flat affect, elliptical dialogue and a penchant for filling up many of these loosely hitched portraits with moments more often banal than revelatory. Powerful descriptions of a changing midwestern landscape-grass-swept, icy, heat-blasted or flooded-pack more impact than most of the characters here. 15,000 first printing; $15,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Sept.)