THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

Jordan Riddle is ready to leave the Mississippi of her childhood and, like so many Southern artists before her, head to the Big Apple, where she aims to study playwriting. Her father, a God-fearing pastor, can't understand why his baby girl would want to head to Sodom and Gomorrah. But Jordan goes anyway and discovers tattoos and panhandlers, not to mention a terrific theater workshop. She writes a play with both religious and universal themes, which is produced in the Village. Meanwhile, dad stays at home pastoring, baffled by his daughter's choices and inflexible in his belief that "New York and theater and art did not fit any church plans or ministry strategies for him." By the time Jordan is called home to her mother's hospital bed, father and daughter haven't spoken to each other in five years. While it's refreshing to read Christian fiction set somewhere other than Mitford, this novel leaves much to be desired. The insights that come from the Greek chorus (in this case, an Episcopal nun) are anodyne: "Each day is a gift." Kadlecek's portrait of the New York theater scene needs more grit to be believable, and the emotional conflict between Jordan and her dad reads like cardboard, from the opening argument (" 'You're being irresponsible!' 'You don't understand art!' ") to the culminating—and utterly unsurprising—reconciliation. (May 17)