TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Rural politics in the South gets a thorough skewering in Kelsay's lively debut novel about an underachiever who decides to solve his midlife crisis by running for mayor in his hometown of Oceana, Ky. Toomey Spooner is the unlikely candidate, a 39-year-old borderline alcoholic who can't seem to get his life on track beyond his solid relationship with his girlfriend, Willie, a social worker who tolerates his foibles and his eccentric family. Spooner is sucked into the mire of local politics when a business group approaches him with a shady deal to locate a medical waste plant in Oceana, but he rejects the overtures and decides to rely on an appeal to the little guy to kick start his campaign. His opponent is a dimwitted, corrupt childhood rival named Dickie Fitzgerald who picks up the support of the medical company that Spooner has turned down. Their down-and-dirty battle climaxes during a local picnic, when Fitzgerald fakes a heart attack just as Spooner levels with the crowd about Fitzgerald's smarmy past. That incident is just one of many entertaining scenes in which Kelsay savages the murky swamp of local politics, satirizes Spooner's over-the-top family and explores the ties that bind in a small town. The shelves are full of novels about middle-aged men trying to grow up, but Kelsay is a talented, funny writer, nimbly working the same turf mined by the likes of Lewis Nordan and Larry Brown. Toomey Spooner is an engaging hero whose musings and terrors enliven a larky narrative that takes substance from its undercurrent of loss and regret. One hopes that a catchy cover and a good marketing campaign will keep this appealing book from getting lost in the shuffle. Agent, Marie Massie. (Sept.)