ALOFT

Chang-Rae Lee is in Updike territory here, the Rabbit Angstrom beat. His Jerry Battle is a suburban guy who has skimmed over full comprehension of just about everything important in life: the death of his wife, his distance from his children, his longtime girlfriend's defection to a cruder, richer man, his father's raging against the night in his nursing place. Don Leslie has trouble with the long rhythm of Lee's sentences and can't find a likable voice for Jerry, choosing heaviness and anger when puzzlement or self-deprecation would have helped. Also, throughout, Leslie calls Jerry's daughter-in-law "Your-niece," which is seriously confusing until you understand it's "Eunice," and seriously distracting thereafter. A wonderful book, it deserves a less earth-bound interpretation. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]