Rockaway

A single, 34-year-old artist frets about her talent, nurses a drinking problem, and embarks on a nonrelationship with a man more than 20 years her senior in Ison’s thin third novel (after The List). When Sarah flees her clingy parents and stagnant life in Southern California to spend the summer of 2001 housesitting in Rockaway Beach, in the borough of Queens, New York, her future looks full of promise. With expensive tubes of paints and carefully stretched canvases in tow, she vows to dedicate her time to art. But after days (and too many pages) turn into weeks of staring at the walls and downing various alcoholic beverages, Sarah has nothing to show for her time but a pale sketch of a shell. A tentative affair with aging, kosher-keeping rocker Marty and a trip to see a friend in Connecticut (new mother Emily) prove equally unremarkable, except for a bizarre, out-of-place moment when Sarah is pressured to practice breastfeeding her friend’s child. By the end of this haphazard tale, readers will be wondering if Sarah has finally achieved her artistic breakthrough, or just a nervous breakdown after one too many glugs from a bottle of cooking sherry. Agent: Emma Sweeney, Harold Ober Associates. (June)