Books: The Handyman By Carolyn See

Jesus Christ was a carpenter. Bob Hampton is a handyman. Actually, he’s an aspiring but discouraged artist spending a summer in Los Angeles as a Mr. Fix-It, but Christ haunts this novel because Bob develops an odd knack for transforming the lives of those he works for–the lonely, the helpless, the disconnected. Bob also sleeps with a lot of his clients, but he brings them clarity and color, a transcendent color that eventually finds its way onto his canvases. With this compelling work, one that requires some suspension of disbelief, See evokes an L.A. rarely seen: a place where unexpected beauty blossoms in the margins.

–By Elizabeth Gleick