Haunted House

In one stifling moment near the beginning of this strong, evocative first novel, its genesis is laid bare: little Robin Dale's father slides her into a pool, steps away and, moving backward, hands outstretched, says, ""Try to reach me.'' Robin spends the rest of her life trying to grab hold of her father, a Navy pilot who moves his family from one small-town airbase to another every few years, while he flies off to cities with exotic names and plenty of bars. When drinking loses him his job, he sits at home, for once, filling Robin's head with tales of his heroism, turning her into his copilot. But he drifts away again, and Robin is left with her mother and small brother. After high school, she wins a scholarship to study abroad. When she comes home, it is to a transformed and unreachable mother, now a movie star who goes on location to far-away places, where Robin follows, never quite catching up. Finally Robin settles down with her lover, Carrie. But bizarre events occur in the house that they are restoring. At the novel's close, Robin is in the pool again, reaching for her father, drowning in the haunted house of memory. (January)