Flesh Wounds

With only a few early lulls in the psychological action, Cochrane's compelling first novel about a Midwestern family finally acknowledging years of buried anger speeds its very human characters from a gripping opening to an eventful, moving conclusion. When the police arrive at Hal Lamm's house to arrest him for sexually abusing one of his granddaughters, he slips out the back door and escapes temporarily, then turns himself in. Cochrane's story is not about court proceedings (Hal pleads guilty) or the motivating forces behind the crimes (Hal's always been the way he is), but about the ways in which Hal's wife, Phyllis, and their four children come to terms with an abuser whose acts they tolerated for so long. Although each member of the family gets a moment in the spotlight of Cochrane's deft, illuminating prose, Phyllis slowly takes center stage and admits to herself that she has stayed with a man she never loved, a man who harmed their children. Once Phyllis's crisis comes to the fore, the story gains depth, momentum and the kind of surprising yet inevitable outcome that graces the best fiction. Trusting his talent for describing ordinary moments and objects and eschewing the psychobabble of childhood trauma, Cochrane compassionately reveals the hearts and minds of a splendidly realized, credible family. (Sept.)