Family

The author of Jealousies has centered her new novel on a man's long struggle to feel part of a family unit. Orphaned at 12, Nick Austen spends his adolescence in a boys' home. The adult Nick easily falls into a career as a book salesman, but still he is haunted by the need to belong. Over several decades, Nick tries to form an idealized family through his relationships with women. The first is Dore, a teacher with whom he has a baby girl. Later there is Leslie, whom Nick marries and Robin, their daughter. Still later, Dore comes back on the scene. Nick is clearly intended as a sympathetic character, but the way he segues between the womenhedging his betsis manipulative and unattractive. A larger problem is the distanced perspective from which Nick's story is told. There is little dialogue, and the unemotional narrative tells too much and shows too little, lessening the novel's impact. Major ad/promo. (August 26)