Hope Mills

It's easy to see why this first novel by Pierce, a poet (Phillippe at His Bath) and short-story writer (When Things Get Back to Normal), won Pushcart's 15th Editor's Book Award, given to ""overlooked manuscripts of enduring worth."" Although it suffers from poor pacing, it is suffused with a rare sweetness, offering a level-headed, compassionate optimism about human nature that is a fine counterpoint to both cynicism and sap. The story opens in August 1959, as a heat wave is prostrating the small town of Hope Mills, N.C. For 14-year-old Tollie, it is proving to be a miserable summer. Her family is disintegrating, her best friend is sleeping with a married man, her boyfriend is increasingly distant and her period is six weeks late. Small wonder that Tollie wants to escape-not just from her unhappy parents but also from her narrow-minded, impoverished hometown. However, as she well knows, without money even for bus fare, she won't get far; besides, she muses, ""the place she wanted to go probably wasn't even on the map."" Rather than turn the story into a pity party for Tollie, Pierce shows us how this vulnerable yet resourceful young woman gradually comes to grips with her lot, capturing both her wistfulness and her courage in deceptively simple prose and addressing complex racial and social issues with a light, sure touch. Pierce's decision to rotate the viewpoint among multiple characters at times slows the plot to a crawl, but her heroine's tartly funny voice is one that lingers with the reader. (Apr.)