Somebody's Baby

The social and cultural worlds of Jewish girls growing up in the Midwest figure in Kagan's previous novels, The Girls and Blue Heaven. Here, passion undermines an upper-middle-class Jewish family in 1959 Kansas City. The scorching love affair between 16-year-old Jenny Jaffe and tattooed Will McDonald, recently released from San Quentin, begins when their eyes lock--through the windshield of her mother's powder-blue Oldsmobile at the Texaco station where Will pumps gas. The two fall in love, though Jenny's friend's are appalled that she's taken up with gentile ""white trash."" Jenny's parents, Esther and Mose, desperate to pry the pair apart, stoop to cruel measures. By the end of Jenny's senior year in high school, however, she is pregnant. She and Will plan to run away and marry, but when Will fails to appear at the appointed hour, Esther and Mose ship her off to the Stella Maris Home for Unwed Mothers in California, where Jenny is forced to give up her baby for adoption. What follows is a story of frustrated connections that spans several decades and links three generations, as Jenny and Will's daughter eventually searches for her identity. Kagan writes lively dialogue and thickens her narrative with a little melodrama and a weepy scene or two, but she has produced a touching and convincing tale that looks at different kinds of passion--sexual, religious, parental--and considers the irony that genuine love can be found in unexpected places. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates; film rights to United Artists. Author tour. (May) FYI: Kagan is an actress whose credits include Goodfellas, ER and Chicago Hope.