cover image Drowning

Drowning

Lee Grove. Viking Books, $19.95 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-670-83458-7

In lyrical prose this bleak novel features a joyless and broken family named the Downers, maimed emotionally and physically and unhappily bound together by their ties. From different points of view and in often confusing flashbacks covering the years 1933 to 1989, we learn how each family member has been offered one chance at life-affirming passion, but has failed at that moment. Eric, the 85-year-old father, who refused his inclination to sculpt except for one period spent in Paris with the mistress of a gangster, now lives an entombed life in his family's Palm Beach estate. His two daughters have drifted through their lives and times never knowing what they're searching for; his wife finds meaning only on the couch (and bed) of her psychiatrist and his son has not spoken for the 27 years since he fell in love with one of his students at a boys' prep school . Love and familial relations are ruinous forces in Grove's ( Last Dance ) elegiac tale. (May)