The First Law of Motion

In the opening scenes of Moorhead's downer debut, an acerbic, unnamed narrator goes on a bender that takes her from a Philadelphia house party to the East Village and Brooklyn and finally to her mother's New Jersey home. Haunted by the memory of her ex-boyfriend, Daniel, the narrator betrays her keen vulnerability via her brusque, sardonic commentary on her activities and the men she encounters at parties and in bars. References to meds and panic attacks hint at deeper reasons for the narrator's indulgence in alcohol and drugs, but these are left unexplored. Similarly murky is the nature of the narrator's relationship with her mother, who sees that her daughter is troubled and yet plies her with pot. Moorhead captures the unhappy recklessness of a wayward 20-something, from booze and drugs to a series of chance encounters with an alluring stranger. If Bukowski were alive and writing from the point of view of a troubled young woman, it'd read like this. (Nov.)