The ordinary white boy /

"I am ordinary and yet somehow estranged from ordinary people," says 27-year-old Lamar Carey, who, after college graduation, returned to his small upstate New York hometown and settled into an apathetic, uneasy existence working part-time at the local news rag edited by his father. When a local man disappears in what appears to be a racially motivated crime, Lamar is forced to shed the security of his indifference and confront ugly truths about his family, his neighbors, and himself. Lamar's coming-of-age is not a neat transition from conflict to lessons learned, and his wounded, arrogant self-absorption doesn't make for a particularly likable hero. But this messy honesty is the book's greatest strength. Despite uneven pacing, some undeveloped plot strands, and mannered prose, this sharply observed first novel perfectly articulates the mind-set of so many young people struggling to define themselves. Spot-on descriptions of the futility and awkwardness of common gestures will leave readers cringing with recognition, as will Lamar himself, whether readers have parented him, dated him, worked with him, or been him. --Gillian Engberg

This first novel has a familiar protagonist and setting: a bright youth trying to come to terms with life in a depressed and depressing little town in upstate New York. Clarke is no Richard Russo or Russell Banks, however, both of whom have done comic and poignant wonders with similar material. Twenty-seven-year-old Lamar Kerry is still living at home in Little Falls, a mile from his weak-kneed newspaper editor father and his multiple sclerosis-afflicted mother. His girlfriend, Glori, works as a school secretary; his best friend, Andrew, is planning, rather nervously, to become a prison guard at the new jail (at least the pay is good), and Lamar hangs around his father's newspaper office doing odd reporting jobs. The community is nonplussed when jeweler Mark Ramirez, the only Latino in town, goes missing and racial motives are suspected. For a time it looks as if this may stir Lamar into action, but when he interviews community members about their reactions to the crime, he realizes that he is as myopic as they are, and he proves hopelessly inept when Ramirez's wife reaches out to him for help. In the end Lamar does nothing much. He and Glori fumble along in their relationship; he and Andrew go on a drunken, self-destructive road trip. The mystery of the murder is solved in a way that absolves the town from its racism. And Lamar plans to go on hiding his head in the sand. This rather dull tale could have been redeemed by a genuinely comic vision, or some lively characterizations, but Clarke's style (which tends towards ending chapters with lines like "So that's what I do.") is as flat as life in Little Falls. Despite his would-be wise-guy perceptions and underlying decency, Lamar kindles few sparks. National advertising; 9-city East Coast author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Lamar Carney is a 27-year-old college graduate, and though his family expected him to do something extraordinary with his life, he can't seem to work up the ambition to do so. After college he returns to his upstate New York home and rents an apartment one mile from his parents. He takes a part-time job working for his father at the local newspaper and finds an ordinary girl in town, who strongly encourages him to grow up. Ignoring her plea, Lamar takes off on a road trip with his buddy Andrew. In the process of running away, he comes to terms with being ordinary and returns home to get on with it. In his first novel, Clarke (English and creative writing, Clemson Univ.) dishes up an insightful philosophy about innocence and guilt, bravery and cowardice, substance and dramaall couched in the whining, immature voice of a spoiled brat. The writing is clever, entertaining, and sadly accurate. Recommended.Joanna M. Burkhardt, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Providence (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Backed by a big promotional effort, this first novel features an "ordinary white boy," still living at home after college and aware that his family and friends are disappointed in him, who has a chance to redeem himself by challenging the forces of hate in his little town. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A pallid first novel chronicles a year in the life of a desultory college grad, startled into taking his life seriously by a perhaps racially motivated murder. Working part-time for his father at the local newspaper in Little Falls, their small upstate New York hometown, aimless 27-year-old Lamar spends his days indifferently rewriting stories from larger papers, lazily typing up community bulletins, and intermittently grieving for his dying mother. He dates Glori, a secretary at the elementary school, but their relationship also lacks focus. Boyhood friend Andrew proposes leaving town to work as guards at the penitentiary, and at about the same time jeweler Mark Ramirez goes missing. While he paid little attention to Mark, the only Puerto Rican student when they were both in high school, Lamar does not consider himself a racist, though he acknowledges the backwardness of Little Falls. The police chief, his father's cousin, is a xenophobe with a penchant for a little brutality to keep things lively, and another relation is in jail for burning down the home of an African-American family. Lamar takes to the road to escape the ordinariness of his life, goes fishing with Andrew, and sees a migrant worker die. Cathartically changed, he resolves to become a "person of substance" after declining to help the Ramirez family solve the mystery of Mark's disappearance. He proposes marriage to Glori, who has finally tired of his personal blandness, starts working with gusto at the paper, and in some way recovers his sense of direction. After Ramirez is found to have been murdered by a white man, Lamar decides racism wasn't the problem after all. An almost charming hero and a vivid sense of small-town life, but the story fails to make a true claim on the reader's attention-especially when the painstakingly elaborated racial theme dissolves at the end into vapid irrelevancy. Author tour