Called Out

The sixth novel by Mojtabai (after Ordinary Time and the award-winning Blessed Assurance , a nonfiction work about the South) offers a curious admixture of sociology and metaphysics. The story, narrated by a variety of witnesses, records the traumatic impact on the inhabitants of a small Texas town of the crash of a commercial airliner in a local field. Mojtabai interweaves narrative, character portraits and dream-like meditations on life, death and the role of fate. As she notes in her acknowledgement, the heart of the book comes from a question that has long concerned her: What happens in a disaster situation when a priest anoints people who may not be Christian as they die at the crash site? Father Mark's dilemma is compellingly explored through powerful writing (another character suggests that in the case of non-Christians ``it's . . . just wasted oil and a wistful prayer''), yet the priest's ruminations are overwhelmed by the crush of--eventually indistinguishable--narrative voices. The crash serves as the boundary between the world of daily, small-time concerns and the amorphous land of consciousness. However, the plot ultimately loses its way and runs out of fuel as a vehicle for exploring the psychic map of a small town. At its best, Mojtabai's literary perception awakens a sociologist's tale. Ultimately, however, her work lacks the narrative patterning and intensity of perspective that would elevate it from an interesting concept to a full-blooded novel. (June)