Saving St. Germ: 2a Novel

Dukes follows up the entertaining but flawed Dear Digby with a more mature second novel, in which she continues her exploration of female creativity and eccentricity. As gifted scientist Esme Charbonneau Tallich nears a breakthrough in the formulation of a Theory of Everything, her behavior becomes increasingly bizarre. She is suspended from her job at a large California university after she neglects her teaching and research duties. Her fragile marriage to an aspiring stand-up comic deteriorates. Then her most vital relationship is threatened when her husband, Jay, agrees with the teachers and doctors who want to institutionalize their peculiar but gifted daughter Ollie, a five-year-old who spends most of her time observing the world from inside a cardboard box decorated to look like a television set. A series of ``Imaginary Lectures to Ollie,'' woven into the plot, enhance our understanding of the often-difficult Esme and her strong bonds to both her career and her daughter. This portrait of the artist as wife, mother and academic limns the semi-madness of a creative woman. It is engaging and irreverent, peopled by offbeat, sharply delineated characters. Long a highly regarded poet, Dukes has developed into a skilled novelist as well. (Feb.)