Blind Sight

Former ballet dancer Howrey makes an impressive debut with an intriguing novel that examines personal history. Having just met his famous actor father for the first time, Luke is spending the summer with him in Hollywood while working on his college application essay. The product of a one-night stand and the only male child in several generations of women, Luke was raised to be accepting, sensitive, and adept at reading signals, qualities that help him bond with a man he never knew and take Hollywood insanity in stride. So when his father confides a career-killing secret, revealing it in screenplay form no less, Luke understands the need to keep quiet about it. Back home in Philadelphia, his mother reveals a secret about her past. Alternating between tricky present tense first- and third-person sections, the novel speeds along with deftly drawn characters and pitch-perfect dialogue until a late unnecessary twist, dropped suddenly and left unresolved, lessens the impact of an otherwise assured debut. (Mar.)