cover image Summer Gloves

Summer Gloves

Sarah Gilbert. Warner Books, $18.95 (197pp) ISBN 978-0-446-51689-1

Three generations of beauty-pageant contestants collide in Gilbert's ( Dixie Riggs ) audacious, insightful and characteristically hilarious third effort. Here, Atlantan narrator Pammy Outlaw laments the realization that she's ``turning into'' her mother. That mother, known sarcastically--but also affectionately--by her onetime title of Miss New Jersey, taught Pammy that good looks were the key to fulfillment. Now, Pammy maintains a perfect figure and forces her own 12-year-old daughter to enter every pageant that comes down the pike. Inwardly, Pammy berates herself for being a stage mother, knowing that her obsessive behavior is a reaction to her husband's philandering. Only Miss New Jersey--the unwitting object of many of Pammy's ax-murdering fantasies, yet a symbol of unconditional love nonetheless--provides the comfort her daughter requires. Like Jill McCorkle's characters, Gilbert's nervy, unequivocating heroines do more than give rousing monologues: they invite readers to share their hang-ups and their victories, and even seem to possess the ability to absolve guilt (in this case, over exaggerated matricidal notions). Even if the syrupy, indecisive conclusion is a slight letdown, Gilbert's latest is a (Georgia) peach. (Apr.)