THE EDUCATION OF MRS. BEMIS

The personal values of what could be called Upper Boston are as important as the two main characters—Mrs. Bemis and Alice Matthews, the young psychiatrist who tries to help her—in journalist and author Sedgwick's engaging and warm if finally confounding novel. Since Madeline Bemis is 76 when Dr. Matthews finds her curled up almost catatonic on a bed in Filene's department store, it's obvious that treating her will involve considerable backtracking. Equally obvious is that these two women—one from a working-class family in a rust-belt town, the other imperious and rigid after a lifetime in the Brahmin precincts—will find commonalities in the process. When she was 18, Madeline was engaged to a bomber copilot stationed in England during WWII. Waiting at home for her life to begin, she had an affair with an Irish gardener who left her pregnant. She was sent away to have the baby and give him up for adoption. When her fiancé returned, permanently disabled, they settled into a remote marriage. Sedgwick (The Dark House) creates a striking portrait of Mrs. Bemis's time and place, as well as of likable but insecure Dr. Matthews, who is battling her own professional and emotional problems. The plotting is less assured, with a central mystery that's resolved in a melodramatic fashion, but the narrative succeeds as an appealing story of a shared journey. Agent, Kris Dahl of ICM. 8-city author tour. (May 3)

Forecast:Regional sales should be sparked by the author's pedigree as a member of the Sedgwick clan of Massachusetts literati.