A sense of enthusiasm can help to paper over flaws. J. Courtney Sullivan's "The Cliffs" seems disorganized, then it seems too schematic, then it seems to be a "dump site" for big, bulky sacks of exposition. But JCS likes her characters, so I stay invested in the story. One, Jane, is at war with her mother. Jane--a bookish kid--wins admission to a selective summer program at Bates. When she tells Mom, Mom is oddly dismissive: "It's just a way they're trying to drain money from us." That's a lie, and Jane does enroll in the program. Halfway through, she overhears a teacher explaining that this is a kind of charitable gesture, aimed at "underserved teens"--and Jane then understands that her mother's reaction was about pride. Jane has scorn for Mom, and for Mom's alcoholism--but later, as an orphan, Jane begins to question the narrative in her head. What had she missed, when her mother was alive? Nearby, an unhappy housewife...