EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE

"If I am anything unique now, it is within my present handicap. Only God's select few have my privilege... my struggle for cognition is fitful and hard. My memory fades in and out like reception on a car radio in mountain ranges." That eloquent summary captures the plight of Robert, the remarkable 35-year-old protagonist of Laskowski's grim but revelatory debut novel. As the story begins, the former music major is confined to a wheelchair in a Montana group home after suffering a brain injury in a rock-climbing accident, unable to care for himself or control his impulses. His attempts to write his story and live independently frame the narrative, but it is Laskowski's ability to take readers inside Robert's consciousness that makes the book memorable. Robert makes several passes at his attractive female caregivers, despite having a sexual relationship with fellow patient Lorna, who is dying of multiple sclerosis; while those advances are dismissed as "inappropriate behavior," to Robert they represent his longing for a normal existence. His family life is equally problematic: Robert's parents have become reluctant to visit him, and his 13-year-old son, John, struggles to deal with Robert's condition and his inability to remember John's mother, Kelsey, who became pregnant just before Robert's accident. Laskowski keeps the focus on Robert's daily struggles in the early going, but as the book progresses he begins to pose wrenching questions about the nature of illness and sanity. The book closes with an elegiac recovery fantasy that serves as a poignant reminder of the strength of the human spirit in the face of devastating disability. (June 30)