WAITING TO DISAPPEAR

Set in the small Southern town of Moodus in 1960, first novelist Fritz's tender but scattered story centers on Buddy, who, on the brink of high school, watches her mother suffer a nervous breakdown and check herself into a hospital. Her mother had always had "spells," but since the death of Buddy's brother two years ago, "she was disappearing from the inside out like a thousand-year-old egg." Narrator Buddy's strong voice make her emotions easy to relate to: she's mad at her mother, but desperately wants her to come home, and she's afraid to tell her stylish best friend, Ginger ("I wasn't prepared to lose my friend. I feared she'd think Mama was crazy and look for signs of it in me"). Some of the plotting, such as the mother's all-patient production of Oklahoma! or Buddy's chance encounter with a boy she has a crush on, seem wedged into the plot, and a few of the conflicts wrap up suddenly (like Ginger's acceptance of Buddy's poor friend). But Buddy's winning personality and her imperfect circle of support, including her wild aunt Sherry and her pharmacist father, add warmth to this story of a teen who must learn to cope with her mother's illness and, ultimately, herself. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)