Day of the Little Guy

What we run from pursues us, life after life-or so posits this novel of reincarnation, in which first-time author Van Meter creates a protagonist who must face down a fear that first stalked him 800 years ago. The story opens in 12th-century ""Saxony, or Denmark, or Scotland-just where I could not remember."" The narrator is a feudal lord tracking a vicious bear that's been terrorizing his fiefdom. Then the setting abruptly shifts to rural Wisconsin, where he assumes his contemporary identity as a logger. The narrator moves on to the tale of his first dog, Josie, a beloved St. Bernard who saved his life and was his best friend until she had to be put down in old age. After an extended grieving period, the narrator purchases an Akita pup, the ""little guy"" of the title who accompanies him on his logging duties and must also listen to a litany of tirades directed at modern environmentalists and gun-control advocates who would impose their laws on the narrator's backwoods lifestyle. Other past-life flashbacks reflect a similar obsession with weapons and power, while the climax focuses on another confrontation with a wayward bear. While Van Meter displays some natural storytelling skill, the lack of narrative focus gives his book the chaotic feel of an outline or an early draft of what might have begun as an autobiography: Van Meter is a logger; his dedication page reads, ""I wrote this down for Josie""; and the publisher lets on that Van Meter believes himself to be the reincarnation of an ancient Celt-though, we hope, not of Taliesin or some other fabled bard. (Nov.)