Myrtle of Willendorf

Often witty and even more often provocative, this first novel is arresting despite its flaws. About to enter her sophomore year of college, narrator Myrtle is seriously overweight. As she tries to achieve some form of self-acceptance, she ruminates on her estrangement from her high school friend, Margie, a would-be coven leader who advocates Goddess worship. ""Before God was a pale, thin man,"" Margie says, holding up a copy of the Venus of Willendorf, ""people worshipped a robust, bountiful woman."" At the other extreme is Myrtle's current roommate, Jada, who needs two hours to groom herself every morning and tries to ""recruit [Myrtle] into her cosmetic cult."" Jada is rarely without her handsome boyfriend, and Myrtle twice has the misfortune of walking in on their sexual encounters, including an elaborately and hilariously referenced oral sex act. An aspiring painter, Myrtle enters a racy drawing of Jada's boyfriend at a campus caf then overhears Jada's friends ridiculing her. When one calls her a ""lesbo,"" Myrtle's hurt and anger precipitate a revelation. Myrtle's voice is thoroughly compelling, even when she revels in her most disgusting habits--as in her extended, loving description of biting her fingernails and toenails--and even though the resolution comes too easily. However, for all Myrtle's fleshiness, she is not fully realized. She seems to have no family, and no life off the small stage that O'Connell shows us. But it testifies to O'Connell's talents that she leaves readers wanting more, not less, of her oversize heroine. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)