Delia's Song

Even the most sympathetic reader will squirm at this earnest but very poorly written first novel whose eponymous heroine leaves her Mexican-American family in 1968 to enroll as a freshman at Berkeley. Delia becomes politicized, romantically involved with a succession of men and (of course) alienated as she eventually earns a Ph.D. and then decides to become a writer. The literary abilities attributed to the main character all too painfully point up the deficiencies in Corpi's storytelling, chief of which is a failure to modulate Delia's thoughts, despite interpolated passages of italicized phrases that attempt stream-of-consciousness. Consequently Delia remains one-dimensional and her decisions seem glib; for example, she plans her writing career just as soon as a mentor suggests this (`` Why not . . . You know she's right ,'' is Delia's immediate response). Delia's conflicts are so superficially explored that her efforts to resolve them are ultimately of little interest. (Dec.)