Adult Angst In Suburbia

After being forcibly retired from his advertising job, Wallace Webster spends his days and nights puttering around his Texas Gulf Coast housing development, Forgetful Bay. Odd things happen, such as a woman dancing in her slip in a driveway not her own and some mysterious deaths. However, these occurrences seem more like a backdrop to the low-key drama in Wallace's life, mostly to do with women. Morgan, his college-age daughter, comes down from Houston some weekends. Jilly is a younger former co-worker, with whom Wallace tries very hard not to have a romantic relationship. Diane is his ex-wife, who has a thing for Jillly's miscreant ex-husband and is thinking of moving into the neighborhood. Chantal is a restauranteur who lives nearby and with whom Wallace has an offbeat affair after being locked in the camping trailer on the roof of her eatery. If you are looking for rip-roaring narrative, this is not it, but Wallace, as the narrator, muses on whether settling is really the right choice, how well we can know anyone, and the general strangeness of everyday life, and it is enough. There Must Be Some Mistake is Frederick Barthelme's fifteenth novel, and one knows one is in the hands of a subtle master.

In The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta tells the tale of a sex-ed teacher and her relationship with a born-again soccer coach. Ruth Ramsey gets some knickers in a twist after admitting in her health class that oral sex can be pleasurable. She is saddled with a consultant of sorts that makes her teach the joys of waiting until one is married to have any kind of sex at all. Ruth is further tried when she catches her daughter's soccer coach, Tim, leading the girls in prayer after a victory on the field. Tim is a member of the local evangelical church, which he joined after hitting rock bottom with substance abuse issues. The church is diverse, but it loves to police the behavior of others, such as Ruth. Tim also lives with the pain of having lost his wife and daughter to divorce as a result of his addiction. Ruth is a progressive, counseling her gay friends but oblivious to her daughters' spiritual curiosity. Witty satire pervades this moving, character-driven gem.

René Steinke deals with poison, both psychological and environmental in Friendswood, which like There Must Be Some Mistake, takes place in coastal Texas. Friendswood is the town built to replace an earlier one that became a Superfund site after a hurricane revealed the extent of environmental damage done by a nearby chemical plant. Lee is still walking wounded after the death of her daughter from cancer (very probably due to toxic sludge) fifteen years before. Her neighbor, Hal, is relying on Jesus to keep himself sober and financially afloat as he looks to build houses on newly-EPA-approved land. Willa is a sensitive high school student who, in her attempt to impress a boy, gets gang-raped, including by Hal's son. Dex is her classmate, and witnessing what happens to Willa, wrestles with what the right thing to do is. With its obvious concern for teenagers and their inner lives and relationships, this might be a good book for the high school set. Told from multiple perspectives, Friendswood is an emotionally-affecting tale of lives of quiet desperation headed towards combustion.