Loose Ends

Bowers's previous book, Words for the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist, chronicled his attempts to track down a man named David Jones who plagiarized a number of Bowers's poems and hoodwinked literary journals into publishing them. If only the plot for this first novel from the highly regarded poet and nonfiction writer proved as gripping. Davis Banks occupies the lowest rung of the academic ladder, toiling as an adjunct professor at a junior college in Iowa. He's also a diabetic and a compulsive liar. When his mother dies, Davis returns to Clarksville, Tenn., for the burial. There he runs into Ann Louise Wilson, a high school classmate and now a Clarksville police officer. Taking up residence in his mother's empty house, Davis delves into her life and learns--via a purse filled with condoms and cigarettes--that she wasn't the shy, retiring woman he thought. Meanwhile, the discovery of a stray corpse near the Bankses' family plot sends Ann Louise and Davis investigating a cold murder case. Throw in Davis's ping-ponging diabetes, the inevitable affair with Ann Louise, her jealous ex-husband and Davis's search for his mother's lover, and the book develops more plot lines than it can comfortably handle. Fans of Bowers's poems may find themselves gratified by the imagery, but most of them will hope that Bowers will rededicate himself to poetry. (Mar. 16)