Is This Tomorrow?

Few events are as tragic as the loss of a child, especially when the circumstances are unclear. In Leavitt's story of 1950's suburbia, discord strikes when divorced working mother Ava Lark moves in. Although the neighborhood closes ranks against Ava, her 12-year old son Lewis finds two friends: Jimmy and Rose, siblings marginally more acceptable because their father is dead. When Jimmy dis-appears, a neighborhood gripped by the paranoia of the era mobilizes to search for Jimmy, but there are those who suspect Ava since Jimmy frequented her home. Already yearning for his father, Lewis withdraws into himself as Jimmy fails to materialize, and abandonment is complete when Rose and her mother move away. An eight-year temporal leap finds Lewis working at a hospital in a different state and Rose teaching elementary school, though neither remain in contact. Leavitt (Pictures of You), known for her ability to plumb the depths of human emotions, reveals the far-reaching effects of Jim-my's disappearance on the entire character of the neighborhood. Her real strength lies in her portrayal of grief's many manifestations in those most closely affected: Lewis, Rose, and the two mothers. Leavitt demonstrates through Lewis and Rose that without closure, the grief remains dormant yet re-tains its power. (May)