Throughout the 1980s and '90s young first-time novelists have persisted in making detachment their dominion. Those writers have created worlds in which contemporary characters speak in a passionless staccato as they find themselves ravaged not by tragedy but rather by vague ennui.
In her debut novel, Private Altars (Random House; 322 pages; $21), Katherine Mosby audaciously bucks such fashionable themes, and the result is a stunningly lyrical work of fiction. Set in the South during the 1920s and '30s, the novel revolves around the suffering of Vienna Daniels-a woman, Mosby writes, whose "face had the stamp of character intelligence sometimes bestows,...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
