September Publications

Mitch Cullin (The Cosmology of Bing) tracks a man's downfall in UnderSurface, his fifth novel (with illustrations by Peter I. Chang). John Connor is a married English teacher with two children. When his love life cools down, he finds sexual gratification with other men, first in an adult video store, then in a public restroom. During one anonymous encounter, he witnesses the murder of a police officer, but does not come forward. Eventually, his conscience gets the better of him and he offers information to a detective, except he leaves out some facts. Despite a promise of confidentiality, John's life soon falls apart. This grim morality tale (based on actual events) is well written and engrossing, but many straight readers will find the graphic sex between men off-putting and, although the subject matter is handled sensitively and intelligently, many gay readers have long had enough of unhappy endings. (Permanent, $24 166p ISBN 1-57962-077-9)

Crowd-pleasing Irish import Francesca's Party is the latest from Patricia Scanlan (City Girl; Finishing Touches). When Francesca Kirwan drops her husband, Mark, off at the airport, he forgets his cell phone; she goes to return it, only to find him kissing svelte young Nikki. The narrative moves back and forth between spineless Mark and spunky Francesca, focusing on the latter, who gradually begins to find solace in her independence and eventually strength and happiness. Family members, like Francesca's unsympathetic mother and devoted teenaged sons, provide as much friction as support. The dialogue is crisp and intelligent, and there are plenty of amusing scenes, including a showdown between Francesca and "cheeky little tart" Nikki, that will have readers cheering for the modest heroine. Scanlan shows that living well is indeed the best revenge. (St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 384p ISBN 0-312-30172-3)

A boy's coming of age is documented in The Lives of Kelvin Fletcher, a collection of short stories from novelist and poet Miller Williams (Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems), who read at President Clinton's second inauguration. Religious guilt, racism and sexual awakening are underlying themes in the first seven linked stories, which are set in the mid—20th century. The scenarios are familiar—Kelvin's mother makes him destroy a litter of rats; he gets caught peeping into the girls' locker room; a friend drowns; he loses his virginity. "Coley's War," the novella that ends the collection, is a surprising departure. Kelvin's idealistic college friend has gotten involved in revolutionary Central American politics. Kelvin and two other friends naïvely follow Coley to Mexico, where they stumble into a terrifying world of violence, sex, corruption and political strife. Williams's wistful, lyrical prose adds dimension to the early stories, though he wisely shifts gears for the novella, employing a more gritty and direct style. (Univ. of Georgia, $24.95 170p ISBN 0-8203-2439-6)

The son of an Italian New York mafia don finds out he's Jewish in Leo Rutman's unusual novel of American organized crime and cultural identity. Set in 1962, Thy Father's Son is the story of Davey Rossi, a prizefighter and scion of an important syndicate family who finds out that he's actually the adopted, orphaned son of a murdered Jewish mobster and his showgirl moll. Furthermore, his adoptive father took part in the hit on his biological one. The stunned Rossi tries to track down his mother and find out the real story of the gangland machinations behind his father's death while becoming embroiled in vendettas of his own; along the way, Rutman reveals much about the heyday of Jewish organized crime, as well as the evolution of the Italian-American mafia in the 1960s. The book's first-person narration and dialogue can be stiff, but Rutman's original, intricate plot and well-researched historical details make up for the shortcomings of his prose. (St. Martin's, $24.95 352p ISBN 0-312-29061-6)

In the five elliptical short stories of Tales from the Cuban Empire, Antonio José Ponte (In the Cold of the Malecón) explores some curious corners of contemporary Cuba. A student of nuclear physics on a sojourn in the Soviet Union, a distraught woman in an airport bathroom, an urban planner with a Borgesian secret, a Chinese butcher in search of the heart of an elephant and an undercover inspector listening to stories in a barbershop are Ponte's cryptic protagonists. The slight stiffness of the translation by Cola Franzen and the purposefully oblique narration make these fictions hard nuts to crack, but Ponte deserves credit for his fresh take on the much-mythologized island. (City Lights, $11.95 104p ISBN 0-87286-407-3)

Mary Monroe's Gonna Lay Down My Burdens opens with a bang, when Carmen Taylor intervenes in a violent lovers' quarrel between her friends Chester and Desiree, and Chester winds up dead. Most of the novel is told in flashback, following Carmen and Chester's ill-fated attraction to one another, which began when they were teenagers. It traces the friendship between Carmen and troubled Desiree, as well as Carmen's relationship with Burl, a boy she tried to use to make Chester jealous, with disastrous and long-lasting results. Monroe (God Don't Like Ugly) will surely return to the Blackboard bestseller list with this title, a standout among similar offerings. National advertising; 8-city author tour.(Dafina, $24 304p ISBN 1-57566-911-0)

Autumn Leaves is a dull, cluttered drama from first-time novelist Victor McGlothin. Marshall and Rorey are the stars of their college football team until Rorey, who has just admitted he has AIDS, kills himself. Marshall is still a hot property, but his success begins to interfere with his relationship with longtime girlfriend Jasmine. Meanwhile, Kennedy is miserable with arrogant, philandering coke dealer Simpson, but she sticks around out of habit—until she is tempted by sensitive artist Legacy. Melodramatic 11th-hour plot twists (a baby, a murder, an AIDS death) only serve as reminders that nothing of interest has happened all along. The cliché-riddled prose is clumsy and condescending; stereotypes abound, especially Kennedy's mincing co-worker, Morris. McGlothin opines that "love is like a bad perm, you can spread it on thick and it still won't take"—the same could be said about weak writing. Agent, Elaine Koster. 3-city author tour. (St. Martin's, $24.94 352p ISBN 0-312-28676-7)

The tenth in the series of Alan Lewrie nautical adventures by Dewey Lambdin, Sea of Grey finds the swashbucklin', wisecrackin' 18th-century British naval officer who habitually drops his gs aiding the French in their attempts to suppress rebellion in the colony of Saint Domingue. Lewrie battles Toussaint L'Ouverture between trysts with a flock of breathless international beauties ("I have the basin... you wish me to sponge you? You are trés hot? I cool you?"). The lively pace and white-knuckle battle scenes should make this another winner with Lambdin's fans. (St. Martin's/Dunne, $25.95 400p ISBN 0-312-28685-6; Sept. 18)