Writing with the same panache he brought to his clever first novel, An Underachiever's Diary, Anastas again proves himself a smart literary voice. Punctuated by breathless, run-on sentences that impart a hectic feel to the narrative, this is a subversive and funny satire of American materialism and spirituality. Just after Easter Sunday, Rev. Thomas Mosher goes missing from his Congregational church in a Boston suburb. The circumstances were unusual before he disappeared: Thomas is black and ministers to a white congregation that has no idea of the loneliness and self-doubt that plagues their pastor. One faction of the church council, led by hard-driving realtor Martha Howard, thinks that Thomas's abrupt departure may be traced to an affair with married Bethany Caruso. Then again, Martha is a bitter woman, disappointed in her feckless husband and drug-dealing college dropout son. After finding a randy letter tucked inside the parsonage's back door, Martha feels vindicated and takes action. Most of the narrative, however, belongs to Bethany. Highly nervous, Zoloft-dependent, spiritually bereft, yet a loving mother to her two young children, she is an oddly compelling heroine. Returning to the church, she hopes, will satisfy her vague longings—what she doesn't guess is that she will be called upon to succor Thomas. In depicting Thomas's inner thoughts—a murky mélange of sexual longing, cynicism, jealousy and ugly self-justification—Anastas bluntly conveys the poignancy of unfulfilled lives. His unsparing take on the emptiness and desperation of a materialist society sparkles with dry wit and a generous understanding of human complexities. (May)
Forecast: The cult following thatGrand Street editor Anastas established with his first book should increase with this adroit and urbane novel. If he is as articulate as his fiction suggests, he will have a good run on talk shows.
