The Better Angel

Dividing the narrative among three principals, Bograd has written a novel about seniors in high school, about as low a bunch as one could find anywhere. Matthew and Jesse are both in love with Natalie. She chooses Jesse, and their sleazy coupling at a drunken party leaves her worried that she's pregnant. Natalie's girlfriends do quite a bit of talking about hand jobs as safer than sexual intercourse; the boys discuss their dicks frequently; there's little relief from the scatological language in the dialogue except to focus on troubles at home. What the story, if it is one, leads to is how Natalie, Matthew and Jesse arrive at plans for their respective futures. These supposedly exceptional students and their companions are also remarkably ignorant of English, or else the author is. This is the sort of ""novel'' that encourages would-be censors. (12up)