I, Anna Kerry

Aiming at the heart of prejudice and segregation, this allegory begins promisingly enough, with Giannini displaying firm control of his young female narrator's voice. Unfortunately, the narrative soon waxes too preachy by half, and readers will find the characters' yearning for Utopia and constant chafing at society's rules quite dull. Because of a 200-year-old land dispute, the timeless, fanciful town of Sweet Ice is divided between members of the Town Goodness and the Town Badness. Born a member of the Goodness, young Anna is a loner, finding peace only through writing and in nature. When she's 17, however, she discovers agreeable human companionship with charming Robert Clarke, a resident of the Town Badness. Naturally, these wrong-side-of-the-tracks lovers face ignorance, stupidity and malice. Enlightened by their forbidden attraction, Anna and Robert set out to break the towns' artificial separation. When they decide they will write a book showing everyone else how to live, the pompous wheels of the novel spin out of control. By the time Anna and Robert realize that their fictional creations are too idealized, readers will be convinced that they, too, have been subjected to an experiment gone awry. (Aug.)