The Amateur

 "The Amateur" is the story of Mira, who will almost certainly be a character on the big screen within the next few years. Like Christina Ricci in "The Ice Storm," Mira is a teen in an affluent suburb in the 1970s. No one watches her very closely (and this is a problem).

Having survived an attempted assault, Mira goes after her attacker. She is a skilled golfer; she destroys the guy's car with a 9-iron. She does not explain the context surrounding her behavior--the world has never been very welcoming to victims of assault, and the world of the 1970s is especially problematic. So Mira acquires a reputation for being "troubled."

Then the story takes a turn unlike any other turn I've seen in any novel.

Mira is practicing her swing in one of those enormous "golf tents" you see here and there--next to a row of batting cages. The owner of the tent has not followed instructions. A tent should be installed in an area that adjoins a wall; instead, the owner has left the tent in a wide-open space near a picnic zone where caddies tend to have their break interludes. Mira swings; the ball hits a "vulnerable" portion of the net. It sails *through* the net and makes contact with a teen caddie, Teddy. The caddie dies within seconds.

Mira's life is now derailed; though she is meant to go to Yale, she defers her acceptance. She has a legal odyssey--bizarrely, this book becomes a courtroom thriller. (There is some intrigue involving a "target" that has been removed from the net. Mira had been complaining that the target was stupid--golfers should focus on their swing, not on a far-off bullseye. Did Mira herself remove the target?) ....Mira also has a *personal* odyssey. As she awaits various rulings, she makes bad choices in love, in her oversight of her own mental health, in her relationship with her mother. Throughout her travails, Mira is captivating and oddly likable. 

I thought this novel's great strength was its use of "voice." Mira seems real. Reflecting on events from her distant past, she is very funny and unsparing. The writer who came to my mind was Molly Jong-Fast (an actual writer, not the *fictional* writer that Mira is)--both MJF and Mira are "good company."

Terrific book.