Angel Angel

In her engaging debut novel, a quirky study of a dysfunctional suburban family, Stevens deftly portrays people in extreme mental states who attempt to pull themselves and one another back from the abyss. After Augusta Iris kicks Gordie, her artist husband, out of the house over his extramarital affair, she spends weeks in bed, barely speaking, consumed by grief and suppressed anger. When her stoned-out teenage son, Henry, a high-school dropout who mows lawns, learns that his father is living with a lover, he builds a bizarre sculpture in Dad's studio to work out his rage. Meanwhile, Henry's asocial brother Mathew, a Harvard Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, has returned home to comfort Mom. A recluse and health-food fanatic, Mathew hides in his room to avoid Bette Mack, Henry's feisty live-in girlfriend, who attempts to revive the comatose family with peppy advice and sassy critiques. Bette seduces Mathew, is caught, flees and then learns that she is pregnant by Henry, triggering a series of sharp confrontations and decisions that propel most of the main characters toward emotional maturity. Stevens uses her characters' vivid dreams as well as Augusta's interior monologues to perceptively explore familial conflicts. Her touch is assured, her ear for vernacular dialogue marvelously sharp. This is an auspicious debut. (Feb.)