A PRIVATE SORCERY

Gornick's debut starts with a bang when psychiatrist Saul Dubinsky is arrested for stealing drugs from the hospital where he works to support his addiction. What follows, however, is an erratic, somewhat listless exploration of the family and marital dynamics that landed the doctor in dire straits. Most of the book focuses on Dubinsky's wife, Rena, and his brother, Leonard, who scramble to find a lawyer for Saul. Despite their efforts, Saul is sentenced to four years when the state adds a manslaughter charge after the pharmacist who was held up miscarries following the crime. Rena tries to come to grips with her guilt for introducing Saul to a friend who fostered his addiction. After several difficult prison visits, she finally ends up asking Saul for a divorce, setting up an implausible, even bizarre resolution to their relationship. The final chapters find Rena and Leonard off to Guatemala, trying to track down the kidnapped child of Saul's mentor—a tangential subplot that adds nothing to the story. Gornick's writing is clean and luminous, and she offers some thoughtful, compelling observations about the family's troubles, but excess background detail frequently bogs down the plot, and Rena is a sketchy and unconvincing character, despite the effort put into her development. Gornick is a gifted prose stylist, but this is an uneven and unfocused first novel. Literary Guild selection; 5-city author tour.(Nov. 1)