Strong for Potatoes

A college student named Blue Willoughby comes to terms with her Indian heritage, her dysfunctional family's past and a series of terrible mishaps in Thayer's well-crafted, if somewhat maudlin, debut. Leafing through her father's snapshot collection, Blue relives the golf cart accident that ruined her child-star looks, the prom date that ended in pregnancy and the death of her twin sister, who, born without a brain, died shortly after birth. Emotionally neglected by her self-centered mother and withdrawn father, Blue receives love and acceptance from her Passamaquody grandfather, who explores with her the woods that surround her home on Maine's east coast, as well as from his kindly neighbors on the Passamaquody reservation and her bespectacled sidekick, Brian, who adores her from a (mostly) comfortable distance. With their help, Blue grows into a strong young woman. By the end of the book, even readers weary of saintly good guys, dysfunctional jerks and Blue's relentlessly wide-eyed innocence will be hopeful for her as she faces motherhood, college and the beginning of a nurturing lesbian love affair. (Jan.)