The Dog Star

In this short novel Swedish writer Pleijel ( He Who Ob serv eth the Wind ) fashions an unconventional narrative to portray a disturbing family. The narrator, adolescent Ingert, struggles to comprehend her mother's instability, her little brother's speechlessness and the town's gossip about her father. Through her vision, distorted by the filters of memory, emotion and family legend, we see the forces that have shaped her, from her father's upbringing to her parents' fateful meeting at a dance hall to their life in his mother's house. The reader also catches glimpses of a mysterious older sister, several incestuous relationships and a bitter feud between Ingert's mother and grandmother. The troubled girl concludes that her family's problem is too much love--including jealous love, angry love and incestuous love--and fears her inevitable embarkation into adulthood, when love will become a major force. Pleijel's impressionistic, fleeting method of imparting knowledge creates some intriguing and even startling moments, but ultimately distances the reader from the story. Her approach proves flamboyantly pretentious rather than visionary. (Dec.)