Beaut

Morill’s spare, haunting debut explores the space between rebirth and mortality, beauty and horror, family support and family obligation. At 66, widow Jill Lundgrove rents a bland apartment in Des Moines, Iowa, her house having been burned down in a blaze possibly caused by the drug lab her 38-year-old son, Monte, surreptitiously ran in her basement. Though Jill has supported Monte’s long odyssey through addiction, in the wake of the fire, and the heart attack she suffered just before it, she attempts to ignore his pleas for money and help. Monte’s lawyer sister, Carla, lives in New Mexico and rarely contacts Jill, but Petey, one of two children Jill raised after her brother abandoned them, offers a sometimes intrusive devotion. Jill is surprised by the promise of her new relationship with 50-something Ollie Picks. Yet her journal, which comprises the bulk of the narrative, addresses an unnamed man she loved and fled decades before, inviting readers to tease out their story. Morrill’s honed prose and sharp observations make even the story’s most familiar plot elements feel fresh, resulting in a vivid and complex novel that avoids easy answers.[em] (May) [/em]