When Ann Packer was very young, her father had a massive stroke; a few years later, he killed himself. This is the sort of event that makes an artist. If Packer's early years had been untroubled, I'm not sure she would have started writing. "The Dive From Clausen's Pier" begins with a young man throwing himself into a pond. He has misjudged the pond; he makes contact with the Earth. The crash is of the sort that makes you permanently paralyzed. Like Ann Packer's father, this young man (Mike) is subsequently drawn to suicide. He pleads for the right to die. Mike is not the central character in this novel. That title goes to Carrie, who (I think) is the Ann Packer stand-in. Carrie was ambivalently dating Mike when the big accident occurred. Now--at the hospital--does she have to stay with him? As Carrie wrestles with her problem, she behaves in recognizable and sometimes monstrous ways. The setup seems sensational, but actually this is a very quiet novel. A c...