Island

In-depth character development distinguishes this gripping first novel of one man's harrowing, lifelong journey towards self-discovery. The pseudonymous author, a nonfiction writer who completed the manuscript before his death in 1992, shows no trace of inexperience with fiction in his polished narrative. He chronicles the climb of insecure, status-conscious Fred Fay from a Dickensian childhood to apparent success as a Princeton undergraduate in the 1930s, a Madison Avenue advertising executive, a WW II Air Force intelligence officer and a wealthy Manhattan socialite. In a series of reluctantly introspective sessions with his therapist, M. J. Hennerkop, Fay examines the superficiality of his achievements and the inevitability of his downfall through self-destructiveness and alcoholism. Fired, divorced, estranged from his friends and mistress, Fred grapples with his inability to give or receive love. Childhood memories resurface of an abandoned island near the small New England town of his birth. Against Hennerkop's advice, he leaves New York and purchases the island, intending to make it his home and refuge. The novel's second half recounts his experiences there and in the nearby town of Lincoln Harbor, where he will make a new life. Abbot writes evocatively of every phase in his memorable protagonist's odyssey. An improbably upbeat denouement proves disappointing but does not vitiate an otherwise convincing, insightful and eminently readable tale. (Feb.)