Shawver (The Cuban Prospect
) takes a careful and polished but ponderous look at the aftereffects of a preventable tragedy. On a January night in blue-collar East Breed's, Pa., the manager of a restaurant watches as two gangs of teenage boys, townies from the public high school vs. privileged kids from the private Jesuit school, attack each other. Casey, the manager, does nothing—the last time there was a fight, the other manager got in trouble for calling the cops—and so the fight ends with wealthy Colin, a prep schooler, lying in a pool of blood. He survives, but he's severely brain damaged. Shawver explores the high price Casey pays for his passivity and also tracks the emotions of Lea, Colin's mother, who'd long felt that her cold, handsome son was "an extremely difficult boy to love." Shawver puts most of his energy into his exploration of moral issues, and though the story approaches life and death issues courageously, it folds under the weight of Lea's and Casey's excessive contemplation. The people in Shawver's story can be as bleak as the landscape—from the town's hedonistic teenagers to Casey's prickly girlfriend—and there seems no one to root for, though there are certainly people to mourn. (Feb.)
