A Shell for Angela

This tale of a woman's decision to reclaim her Mexican heritage includes vivid details of a Mexican-American childhood in California-the special foods prepared for New Year's Day, the sad squalor of a migrant workers' camp-yet fails to rise above its flaws to become the moving drama the author clearly hoped for. Part of the problem is stylistic; as Lachtman's (Campfire Dreams) first novel for adults, Angela retains too much of the adjective-heavy oversimplification many writers reserve for young readers. And the structure that juxtaposes reports of the adult Angela driving toward Mexico on a vague personal journey with narrative from each period of her earlier life tends to slow the dramatic possibilities. With the omniscient narrator dipping into nearly every character's point of view, the result is a jumble of impassioned desires too tidily resolved at the end. Lachtman overcomes these problems in a few well-wrought scenes-such as the child Angela's observation of immigration officials taking her father into custody-yet these scenes are too few to give the novel more than sociological significance. (Mar.)