Clouded Dreams

Life at an inner-city high school in Washington, D.C., is depicted in Insel's well-meaning novel, which succumbs to cliches. Violence at Ulysses S. Grant High is on the rise, absenteeism is rampant and the school's district supervisors are unfeeling. Even so, Heck Jasper, the aging black principal, and Danny Mitchell, a white English teacher, attempt to hold things together and to reach their charges-one kid at a time. The narrative unfolds from the viewpoints of Heck, Danny and erstwhile student Cirri James, 15-going-on-40, madly in love with a small-time drug dealer and saddled with caring for her baby brother and sister, as well as her crack-addicted mother. Insel writes lucidly and with passion, but her characters, other than Cirri, are too familiar, and her plotting is too predictable-up to and including the requisite act of martyrdom that brings the novel to a close. (Jan.)