This Is How You Fall

The sins of the father are visited upon the son—in spades—in this absorbing noir from Dixon (The Art of Losing). Jake Asprey, who works as a lifeguard at Pennsylvania’s Chime Creek Country Club, had to leave college because the IRS insisted that the money his criminal father owed the government be recouped—in part from tuition Jake had already paid. One bright spot for Jake is the country club chef, 25-year-old Sally Godstreet, with whom he had a brief romance in high school and who he still finds attractive. Things get more complicated when Sally’s bar-owner uncle, “Colonel Tom,” ropes Jake into assisting with a huge score that could solve his money woes forever. The many emotionally damaged characters—including the pornography-addicted woman Jake is currently dating, whose doom is her “compulsion to closely examine questions that are bound to send you to pieces”—are all plausibly caught up in events beyond their control. Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (July)