cover image Bobby's Girl

Bobby's Girl

Rochelle Ratner. Coffee House Press, $9.95 (128pp) ISBN 978-0-918273-22-2

The troubled, unnamed heroine in this short, first novel by poet Ratner often lives in a fantasy world populated by singers such as Fabian, Bobby Rydell and Annette Funicello (the story takes place in the '50s and '60s). As for the character's real life, school is boring, her parents are by turn overly solicitous or oblivious to her suffering, and she is convinced that her schoolmates make fun of her. It is only when confronted with an impending hospitalization that the heroine begins to grapple with her outside world, a process that coincides with the collapse of key parts of her fantasies. By the end of this evocative novel, the protagonist is on the road to recovery. (October)