Rules for Becoming a Legend

Jimmy Kirkus, the hero of Lane’s debut novel, set in Columbia City, Ore., is a high school basketball prodigy on the brink of a crack-up. Practicing in the gym after an off day, his frustration growing, Jimmy begins to run at the gym’s brick wall over and over again until he knocks himself unconscious. This incident earns the half-Japanese Jimmy the nickname Kamikaze Kirkus, and makes him a legend in his hometown. From here, the novel ranges backward and forward in time, each chapter indicating its relationship to this event: “three years until the wall,” “74 days after the wall,” etc. It soon emerges that Jimmy is the son of another onetime basketball prodigy, Todd “Freight Train” Kirkus, who was sidelined by injury and poor choices. Jimmy’s Japanese mother is suffocating in her marriage, his mentally unbalanced grandfather is frequently homeless, and additional problems await the family. The prose and plot are serviceable, but the choppy structure obscures Jimmy’s feelings and motivations, ensuring that nothing he endures makes as vivid an impression as that early scene in the gym. And even that bravura moment raises more questions than the novel ultimately answers. Agent: Rachael Dillon Fried, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Mar.)