Scanlon Pratt, an East Coast history professor specializing in radical organizations and movements, finally lands a tenure-track position and moves west with his pregnant wife, Naomi. The bad news is that they land at a small college where the Forestry Department gets the newest building. The only house they can afford nearby is a small linoleum-floored ranch house in the town of Douglas, Ore., "where there are more people in the July Fourth parade than watching because every kid was riding his bike down Lewis and Clark Boulevard."
Naomi, a professional "nose" who has had a global career in the scent industry, misses New York: "She found herself waiting on street corners in downtown Douglas for a blast of hot fumes from a city bus." Her lucrative sense of smell has mysteriously left her, so she agrees to follow Scanlon in hopes that her nose will come back, her baby will be born in a pleasant town and, soon, they will go back east.
In his third novel, Scribner (Miracle Girl; The Good Life) expertly builds on this Pratt family tension as Scanlon and Naomi gradually become involved with local teen anarchist Clay, who is infatuated with Naomi, and secessionist Sequoia, who seduces Scanlon with her tempeh burgers, herbal tea and big heart. They all have troubled pasts that drive their presents and direct their futures.
In his detailed, nuanced world of both local radical bombings and Paul Bunyan contests, Scribner manages to create a contemporary story of the fiercely independent Northwest that nurtured the likes of Ken Kesey and his Pranksters and now threatens to destroy Scanlon and Naomi's precarious marriage. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.