cover image Home and Away

Home and Away

Joanne Meschery. Simon & Schuster, $20.5 (284pp) ISBN 978-0-671-88419-2

Hedy Gallagher Castle measures out the days of this story by the calendar of the Persian Gulf War and the schedule of her daughter's high school basketball team. These two ``home and away'' battles create a rich metaphorical backdrop for Hedy's own struggle to find her own center. Married for 19 years to Ward Castle, two-time world record-holder in speed skiing, Hedy has been raising 15-year-old basketball star Jen singlehandedly while Ward has flitted as far as Grenoble in search of a comeback 140-mph record. Responsible also for her stroke-damaged father, Hedy works at the I-80 California border station, dispassionately disposing of fruits and ferrets in a vigilant effort to keep the state pest-free. When her daughter's best friend becomes pregnant and her coach is accused of lesbianism, Hedy is pressed to take a slightly sitcommish stand in the face of small-town fundamentalism, which Meschery ( In a High Place ) portrays via a laugh-out-loud description of the hamstrung Family Life Education committee. Hedy is slower to own up to her views on marriage and her love affair with sportswriter Pink Lindstrom, a liaison that keeps the reader turning pages as fast as the account of the final basketball game. Crackling with humor and pathos, this is a thoroughly satisfying read. (May)