Ashland

Simon, the founding publisher of Seven Stories and coauthor of Run Run Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman, captures the rhythms of small-town New Hampshire in his lyrical debut novel. It unfolds in a series of first-person narratives, mainly voiced by Carolyn, who reflects with resignation on becoming a mother at 20 in 1992. She likens her life to a “kitchen drawer that’s already full of all the things I think I’ll do,” and she forges tight bonds with her mother and aunt Jennie, who also became mothers when they were young. A handful of men float through their lives, though none of them seem to be permanent. They include Jennie’s husband, who marries her in 1980, when she’s 14, and Carolyn’s writing teacher at a state college. Elsewhere, elderly Gordon reflects on his “earned optimism” from surviving the Depression and the happiness he found with his wife.Characters describe shared experiences in different ways, but the plot is driven less by events than Carolyn’s yearning—she often feels like the birds around her, skittering “from branch to branch, speaking the language of restlessness.” In the second half, Carolyn deals with her grief following an unforeseen suicide, and Simon skillfully shows how her active mind carries her through (“I make lists in my mind of the people I know, the dead and the living”). This leaves a lasting impression. (Feb.)