AND MY SHOES KEEP WALKING BACK TO YOU

Goldmark takes an offbeat spin through the world of country music in her charming debut, which begins when backup singer Sarah Jean Pixlie gets fired by country star Cindi Lu Bender because a song Sarah Jean wrote has been nominated for an award. She heads home to the Bay Area to crash with her parents and learns that her one-night fling with a guitarist has led to a pregnancy. Goldmark alternates between family subplots and career struggles, following the attempts of Sarah Jean and her free-spirited friends to make it in the music business. Highlights include Sarah Jean's choice between the baby's father and the drummer who becomes her ambivalent new boyfriend, a winning performance at the awards show and the subsequent success of her CD and video. Meanwhile, Sarah Jean and her friends try to unravel a scam involving CD sales, orchestrated by Cindy Lu's people. A couple of the family subplots are clunkers, but a quirky, satirical edge keeps the novel from falling into rags-to-riches clichés. The combination of Goldmark's playful humor, her smooth prose style and her knowledge of the music business carry the day; despite the occasional misstep, the whole ends up exceeding the sum of its parts by a considerable margin. Agent, Sandra Choron. (Sept.)

Forecast:Former book publicist Goldmark was a founder of The Rock Bottom Remainders, an all-star band whose members have included Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Roy Blount Jr. (all of whom supply blurbs) and Stephen King, so her debut is sure to get plenty of attention, at least in publishing circles.