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First Novel Impresses; Advice for Writers

© Robert Powers

As a longtime admirer of the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, I couldn't help but smile at the opening and closing sentences of Paul Lisicky's wonderful first novel, Lawnboy (Turtle Point Press, $13.95).

Fitzgerald's best novel was marked by memorable moments at its start and finish. So is Lawnboy, which begins, "There were things nobody knew about me. The didn't know about my old train set in my bedroom, complete with Cape Cods, hotels, signal crossings, and papier-mâché palms, a set that I tinkered with until the ninth grade, then smashed--to my uttermost sorrow--after a fight with my father." And 370 pages later, ends with "Maybe we'd all pass through the door, ruined, yet wise. The ocean murmured. The kingbirds glided above the mangroves. The flames were still distant, rumbling, not quite advancing. At least the two of us were here, together, the sky over our heads ferocious, harsh, beautiful."

Lawnboy tells the story of pivotal times in the life of Evan, a young man in Florida who struggles with life choices, battles with his family, goes to live nearby his disapproving parents with a man who stirs him emotionally.

After a set of adventures, often amusing, Evan heads south to find his older disillusioned brother, who is running a downtrodden motel, all that remains of a failed dream.

Change is a theme running throughout the book. Evan's parents, unwilling to accept his homosexuality, eventually part in some sort of effort to put their lives back together. Evan's brother, who's bisexual, seems at a loss on the direction he wants to go, unhappy in his current situation, unable to find something to replace it.

Lawnboy examines serious subjects, but Lisicky knows how to keep the story light and often funny. Reading this often brilliant novel makes a critic want to apply the cliché "promising," which doesn't do justice to this accomplished and highly readable excursion into human emotions and the choices that we make, or have made for us.

WRITER'S FRIEND

You meet fascinating new friends on the Internet. One day about two years ago, I was surfing when I came across a Web site called Writing Now (http://www.writingnow.com). Updated regularly, the publication offers excellent information for aspiring writers, addresses of publications looking for freelance submissions, and suggestions for making work worthy of attracting interest and a check from an editor.

Editor Linda Davis Kyle, based down in Texas, eventually asked me to participate in her proposed book, which was published recently. She had given a couple of my articles about writing space on her Web pages. I sent a short article I'd written at her request, and portions of it turn up in The Writer's Friend.

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