Natural Selections

Adam Richeleau is born into an old New Orleans clan whose history has been marred by adultery, murder and suicide. Blond, blue-eyed Adam is the last hope for the survival of the family name. There is one problem, however; Adam believes that he is a girl imprisoned in a boy's body. He becomes a minister, is trapped into marriage by his pregnant girlfriend, and leads a conventional life until one of his parishioners, Lily, confesses that she is a transsexual. Adam's desire to be a woman becomes overwhelming; on Lily's advice, he flees north for a sex-change operation. As Eve, Adam becomes a TV evangelist who pairs God with exercise and falls in love with Nathan Poe, a Jewish TV journalistthe novel's narrator. The story reaches a feverish crescendo when voices from the past threaten to ruin Eve's promising future by disclosing her former identity. Nagy's (Unapparent Wounds and Virgin Kisses) speculations about human nature are expressed in vivid language. Still, her message does not rise above the details, and the novel's motivation remains obscure. November 11