Sisters of the Road

After seeing her twin sister off to Nicaragua to harvest coffee beans for six weeks, Pam Nilsen gets lost leaving the Seattle airport. While turning around on a deserted street, a pair of young women approaches, begging for help. Both are whores, and one has been beaten so badly that she dies later that night at the hospital. Nilsenwho works in a printshop collective, is living alone for the first time in 30 years and has recently come out of the closettries to protect the surviving woman, Trish, but Trish is skittish. She has been seen by the attacker and thus fears for her life, and keep fleeing Nilsen. While trying to trace Trish, Nilsen learns of the young woman's tragic background, including incest with her father and brother, abuse from her stepfather, emotional distance from her mother, drug and alcohol dependency, and now, prostitution. The narrative convincingly evokes the 1960slike atmosphere of Nilsen's lifetrying to balance leftist politics, lesbian sexuality and the demands of making a living. But rather than meet the exigencies of good suspense fiction, Wilson too often discusses the problems represented by Trish's past in a grating, pamphleteering style. (October)