Facts Speak for Themselves

Readers are given a lot to digest in the first chapter of this stream-of-consciousness narrative told from the point of view of 13-year-old Linda. The novel opens when Linda, who has just witnessed the murder of her middle-aged lover, enters a police station with blood under her fingernails. The killer (her mother's boyfriend) has shot himself. The facts of the murder unfold as Linda reports them during a police interrogation; the balance of the novel shifts from what Linda reports to her social worker, to what Linda reports to the reader of her experiences in ""the Center,"" a benevolent home for girls run by nuns. Cole (Celine) is a master at creating narrative hooks, but despite the alluring start, the tale gradually loses momentum as Linda's woeful history unfurls through her emotionless statements of ""facts."" The content is intense and gripping (most of the book relates Linda's relationship with an irresponsible mother and her mother's string of seedy boyfriends, including Linda's father, who committed suicide in his truck years ago). But Linda does not reflect on what has happened to her (e.g., naive to its implications, she is unfazed when molested by one of her mother's boyfriends), which may leave the reader feeling apathetic right along with Linda. The one area in which Linda does express emotion is toward her little brothers (she is their primary caretaker). Teenagers, who may be dazed by the string of traumas, may have trouble discerning or caring about Linda's underlying emotions. But the pointed bleakness of the novel may be most difficult for those teens who recognize themselves (or someone they know) in Linda--they will find no answers in the dilemma posed here. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)