The Lost Son

Told in brisk, unadorned prose from the shifting perspectives of its few characters, Spencer's impressive first novel evokes the ties that hold together a shattered family in a seedy and neglected corner of Pennsylvania. Earthy, plodding, seldom employed Lloyd Redmond maintains an uneasy standoff with Nick Loomis, the 16-year-old son of his ex-girlfriend, who ran out on them both six months earlier. Nick smolders with guilt and anger over his mother's abandonment, longs to flee the squalor of Redmond's dilapidated farmhouse, sleeps in the chicken coop to hide from Redmond and rebelliously pierces his ear. Spencer cross-weaves from Nick and Redmond to Ellen, who, unbeknownst to them, is traveling home by bus, hoping for a showdown with Redmond, to whom she's still hopelessly attached, and a reconciliation with Nick. Meanwhile, Redmond's grim, abusive father has suddenly surfaced, seeking a rapprochement with his estranged son. Spencer displays a keen, affectionate interest in the tangled emotional lives of his characters, yet his understated story, leavened by flashes of dark humor, is dampened somewhat by contrived moments of unabashed sentimentality. (Jan.)