OSPREY ISLAND
Thisbe Nissen
Knopf
Fiction
ISBN: 0375411461

Thisbe Nissen's second novel, OSPREY ISLAND, is a tale of homecomings gone wrong, summer jobs turned horrific and long-hidden secrets reveals in the aftermath of a deadly fire on a resort island off the eastern seaboard in the late 1980s. The set-up --- and one of the major plot points --- will remind readers of Dirty Dancing, a fact that Nissen wisely acknowledges early in the text but that nonetheless gives the book a certain sense of over-familiarity. However, Nissen's knack for creating characters whose emotions and motivations ring true drives the novel and allows her to render indelible, well-crafted scenes of striking originality.

OSPREY ISLAND's major plot is a compact story, but the novel explores a multitude of smaller stories. At its heart is Squee, a little boy whose mother is killed in the aforementioned fire and whose alcoholic father is a danger to himself and others. Suzy and Roddy, two former island residents who have returned and brought various demons with them, struggle to help Squee and to define their own smoldering relationship. Roddy's imperious mother, who knows every secret but cannot bend this situation to her will, is a key figure and perhaps Nissen's finest creation in the book.

Nissen's first book --- and still her best --- was the finely wrought collection of short stories OUT OF THE GIRLS' ROOM AND INTO THE NIGHT. Neither her first novel THE GOOD PEOPLE OF NEW YORK nor OSPREY ISLAND is as consistently strong as that collection, but the new novel shines when its chapters most resemble a Nissen short story. For example, the chapter titled "The Broodiness of Hens" is a highlight of the book despite (or perhaps because of) its departure from the main plot to pursue back story and character development. It is here that Roddy's mother --- the overly symbolically named Eden --- comes to life on the page in a way that makes her the book's de facto center.

Similarly, the chapter titled "Grief-Spurred, Swift-Swooping" is a devastating passage featuring Squee's father Lance and a young Irish girl named Brigid, who is on Osprey Island to work at the tourist lodge for the summer. Nissen builds a suspenseful exploration of sexual gamesmanship gone horribly awry through a series of small but seemingly inexorable moments and decisions. Both chapters confirm Nissen's mastery of the short form and are the most powerful moments in her larger narrative.

The accumulation of such small moments makes OSPREY ISLAND a gripping, if somewhat uneven, novel.

   --- Reviewed by Rob Cline

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