PERFECT READER (Maggie Pouncey)

When former Darwin College President and renowned scholar Lewis Dempsey dies, he leaves behind a twenty-something daughter, Flora, a collection of personal poetry, a house, and Cynthia, his lover and muse.  Flora leaves her job as a magazine editor in the city and returns to Darwin, scene of her childhood triumphs and traumas, to settle her father's affairs.  As his literary executor, it is Flora's task to manage the fate of his prose and poetry.  One problem is that she has never actually read her father's work, not his revered publication, "Reader as Understander," or the poems that he had entrusted to her care.  Cynthia, an art historian who shared Lewis' bed and intellectual passions, wants to buld a relationship with the reluctant Flora that includes a common goal of publishing Lewis' poetry.  Flora is overwhelmed with her return to Darwin and all of the complicated relationships, new and old, associated with the college town.  Her close childhood friend, Georgia, whose long-ago fall from a fire escape was blamed on Flora (who became somewhat of a pariah as a result), is now living in a Mongolian yurt. Georgia's parents, however, remain in Darwin and embrace Flora as a prodigal daughter.  Esther, the wild child turned born-again Christian, has a young daughter and is firmly grounded in the town.  Paul, Lewis' lawyer, becomes Flora's lover and confidante, but Flora has doubts that she has evolved enough to sustain a serious relationship for long.

Pouncey's first novel is a bit slow-paced, but offers a very insider's look at the politics and inbreeding of a college town and its cult of intellect.  Flora is not a heroine; she is a confused young woman coming to terms with who she is and where she stands on the people and issues closest to her heart.  The book has many things to offer to the patient reader and is well worth the time to read it.  At the end, although some issues were resolved and there were many aspects of Flora's life that remain a work in progress.  I guess we will never know how they turned out, but isn't that what real life is all about?