The Cornflake House

British author Gregory debuts with this lively account of a raggle-taggle gypsy family whose supernaturally gifted mother, Victory, wins them a home in respectable Surrey. Eve, the eldest of seven children sired by an assortment of absentee fathers, relates her bohemian upbringing in letters to her prison visitor, with whom she is infatuated. A single mother of teenage Blessing, a boy now living on the streets, Eve continues to struggle with her miraculous, dysfunctional childhood while contending with incarceration. Gregory backs into her story (Eve's crime is not revealed until well into the book), concentrating on the obscure lineage of Eve's multiracial siblings (""Samik, at five, is as cuddly as a panda... He's not entirely English, he has a look of Eskimo around the eyes which marks him out for special treatment at school"") and Victory's clairvoyance. Admirers of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love may find the oddities of this family tame, but Gregory's slapstick delivery and colorful language create an Alice in Wonderland sense of the surreal (""My mother had been experimenting for weeks with the concept of time. Clocks in The Cornflake House had spun backwards, chimed when it was not the hour, jerked their troubled hands forwards as if learning to drive""). Alternately, her compassionate observations of the affection that binds these kids to each other and to Victory ground the story in authentic family life. While Eve's shocking discovery at the end adds little to an appreciation of her current situation, her loving acceptance of her siblings' rough charms and Victory's magic close the book on a uplifting note. (May)