SOMETHING RISING (LIGHT AND SWIFT)

In this follow-up to her wonderful novel THE SOLACE OF LEAVING EARLY, Haven Kimmel has created a tough, soft-hearted little girl who grows up immensely burdened by the care of the family her father has abandoned. Cassie Claiborne supports them by hustling pool--her father's game--and the story builds inevitably to the evening her father shows up at the pool hall and challenges her. Kimmel's characters are always vivid and fully imagined. Chelsey Rives inhabits with grace and sympathy Cassie's passive Louisiana-bred mother, whose life has taken such a wrong turn; her brilliant, helpless, deeply odd sister, Belle; and a full cast of young and old eccentrics who people Cassie's world. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 04]