The Alphabet Man

The lettered narrator of the title is a man fascinated by language and by murder in this amusing, yet ultimately grim, first novel by poet Grossman ( The Animals ). Clyde Wayne Franklin is the country's best-known poet. He is also an ex-convict. A chance encounter with a pastor who is also a former assassin for the U.S. Army makes clear the depths of Franklin's obsession. It turns out that he killed his own father and possibly others along the way. The exploration of this tormented and complex man forms the basis for Grossman's work. From the beginning, there are hints of abuse by Franklin's father. These become clearer as the book progresses, skipping back and forth through time and space. In the present, Franklin searches for his girlfriend, a prostitute in Washington, D.C. In his memory, he relives and attempts to come to grips with his childhood. All of this is not, however, unrelentingly morbid. Dark humor enlivens what is essentially an absurdist, postmodern fairy tale probing the psyche of a serial killer. In Grossman's confident hands, Franklin is like the hero of a Poe story, who talks to prove to the listener that he is sane and only succeeds in proving the reverse. (Oct.)