The Heart of a Thirsty Woman

Witt's rambling second novel (after Slow Dancing on Dinosaur Bones) begins prosaically, if tenderly, with a Kentucky couple in bed after making love, and ambles toward a potentially moving yarn before stumbling over its heroine's eccentricities. Daydreaming Josie Tolliver is an immature 27, and her unimaginative but loving husband, Clarence, sometimes finds her confusingly fey. A quixotic, childlike bibliophile, Josie spends her days reciting Shakespeare and harboring fantasies of moving back to Sage, Ariz., where she was raised. Most of all, she dreams of finding her long-lost sister, Cheyenne, who disappeared when Josie was a teenager. Although everyone but Josie believes that Cheyenne is dead, she has ""visions"" and out-of-body experiences that prove her sister's presence in the world. Witt strives to convince the reader that Josie is gifted and special, contemplative and romantic, but her quirky character annoys rather than endears; she's wacky, to be sure, but not appealing. ""Josie has always felt there should be a higher purpose in life, something mysterious and intriguing that takes the boredom out of ordinary existence,"" Witt writes. ""But lately she's begun to suspect that there may be no such purpose, that nothing in this world really matters...."" Such musings pass for depth, and are meant to illustrate Josie's questing nature. Witt's imagery often misses the mark as well: she begins one chapter by likening an Arizona sunrise to ""an unruly penis."" Josie's search for her sister, and for herself amid her various distractions (her books, husband, bars and friends), takes her on a whirlwind yet predictable path to fulfillment, but her enlightenment may strike readers as tepid. ""I don't know where I'm headed but I'm out of the house and running, and the wind feels good on my face."" (June)