Self-Portrait with Ghosts

A woman who reassembles her life and achieves greater maturity in her work is the protagonist of Dwyer's impressively nuanced second novel (following the well-reviewed The Tracks of Angels). In this story of betrayal, loss and forgiveness, ceramicist Kate Flannigan has made a career for herself by casting her family members as mythic figures. She's raising her 13-year-old daughter, Audrey, alone in the Southern California beach town where she herself grew up. But Kate bears a scar of betrayal: her husband, Sam, was stolen away a decade earlier by her wild sister Colleen, and Kate has since refused to speak to either of them and has even denied Sam visitation rights. As Kate begins her latest project, a ceramic portrait of herself as Zeus giving birth out of her head to Audrey (as Zeus did to Athena), her brother Luke commits suicide. His death brings the family together again, leading to the reconciliation of the estranged sisters and to Audrey's first meeting with her father. Although at times the dialogue is stagy, the symbolism obvious and the characters naively portrayed, the moments of truth in this novel outweigh these minor defects. Dwyer moves gracefully from character to character and from past to present. She gets the intergenerational dialogue just right, often with a flash of humor, and the distinctive voices ring true. Even jaded readers will be moved by this novel of quiet metamorphosis. (Jan.)