The Mao Game

Poignancy alternates with laconic descriptions of addiction and abuse in this savvy first novel from 21-year-old former child-actor Miller (who appeared in the film River's Edge). Teenaged actor Jordan Highland moves in with Grandma, a famous Hollywood photographer now dying of cancer, after the loving old woman wins custody from his divorced movie-star mother in a ruthless card game called Mao. Grandma takes pictures of Jordan, sharing tales of her life in Hollywood while observing his struggles. Long deprived of a sense of connection to the real world by his early film career and his narcissistic mother, Jordan now reveals the festering secret of his boyhood sexual abuse by his alcoholic football-star father. The photo bonding sessions also expose Jordan's drug addiction and Grandma's own nightmarish recollections of her escape from the Nazis. As Grandma nears death, Jordan and his mother are thrust closer together, culminating in a suicide attempt that forces true communication. Grandma's death welds the final link between mother and son as, newly sober, Jordan starts his own game of Mao with her. Miller, a Bret Easton Ellis with warmth, makes an impressive debut. $25,000 ad/promo; author tour. (May) FYI: Miller, now a student at Yale, is the son of Pulitzer prize-winning author Jason Miller.