Miss You Like Crazy: Eliza Clark

Maylou Puce Turner's mother departed this life during a rousing gin game, so Maylou is driving her grieving father, John, and her mother's ashes from Florida back to her home in Kansas. They are joined on the trip by CeCe Morris, a neighbor who wants to find herself and lose her husband. Maylou, who yearns for some maternal words of wisdom from beyond, detours to visit a psychic (alas, her ``transcendental duct'' is blocked that day). Later, fate plus engine trouble briefly strands them near the home of Sherman the Uncanny, but the only ghostly presence Sherman can rustle up during a seance is a surprise visitor for CeCe. When John (who hears messages being whispered by Sherman's trees) and CeCe (who is fascinated with Sherman) decide to settle in, Maylou must continue on alone toward Topeka and the wisdom she needs to carry on with her life. Midway through Clark's first novel, Maylou tells her father that ``somewhere between music and bumper stickers there's words you'll like using when the time is right.'' Bumper stickers are what Turner's characters sound like when they speak--glib and cliched, and the author's relentless attempts at humor fall flat. (Sept.)