Bobby Soxer

At times ponderous, always powerful, Calisher's 10th novel explores the twisted secretspast and presentof a family living in a small New Jersey town. Through the consciousness of a young actress (who stands six feet, three inches tall), the reader is drawn into a strange, spellbinding household. The characters include the narrator's Southern-born, eccentric mother; her father and his likable male companion; her outspoken younger brother; her reclusive paternal grandmother; and a sampling of the town's residents. But the novel's strongest presence is that of Craig Towle, an elusive playwright who deeply affects three generations of women in this family, and who writes a play that underscores the story's most prevalent theme: ""The difference between men and women may lie elsewhere than where we think.'' This demanding, labyrinthine novel will repay the reader's diligence through the resonance of its insights. (March 28)