The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty
New York: Hyperion, July 2003. 304 pp.

Reviewed by Trix Niernberger

Laura Moriarty's first novel, The Center of Everything, explores the growth of an adolescent girl, Evelyn Bucknow, who succeeds despite her environment. It is a conventional tale told with humor, politics, religion and some delightful life observations.

Evelyn begins her story at age 10, when Ronald Reagan is running for President. She is a poor kid with sad looking eyes who likes living in Kerrville, Kansas, because it is the center of everything.

She was born to a teenage single mother, Tina, whose life is confined to low-wage work and an affair with her married boss. Tina is an agnostic vegetarian who yells at the Republican politicians on television and provides her daughter with occasional wisdom, "the only reason people are ever mean is that they have something hurting inside of them-a claw of unhappiness scratching at their hearts."

Tina's 45-year-old mother, Eileen, favors evangelical preachers and literal translations of the bible. Evelyn describes her grandmother's perspective of Ronald Reagan, "She's worried about him being president, though, because his middle name is Wilson , which means he has six letters in each of his three names, and if you've read Revelations, that alone is enough to give you the shivers."

When Tina is hospitalized with the premature birth of a son, Eileen finds a church to attend with Evelyn. The church, which meets in a skating rink, becomes a refuge for Evelyn while she sorts out her anger towards her mother for the affair and the resulting pregnancy.

Other characters in the novel include Mrs. Rowley, a neighbor who "only talks when she has something mean to say;" Travis Rowley, her son, who steals, shines, sins and sinks; Deena whose mother is following the Grateful Dead; Samuel, the imperfect child of an illicit union; and a VW whose stereo is broken and plays non-stop Frank Sinatra.

Travis, who is Evelyn's crush, falls for Deena. Evelyn describes that early relationship, "Travis is especially obsessed with Deena's hair, and even when I am standing right there trying to talk to one of them, he has to reach over and push it out of her face or pick imaginary objects out of it in a way that reminds me of a television special I once saw about chimpanzees."

The novel continues through the Iran-Contra hearings that made a television hero of Oliver North. Evelyn describes that summer, "We have renamed one of the cats Ollie, because he is on the television all the time too."

The heroes of the book are teachers who open minds and give hope: Mrs. Fairchild who reads My Antonia to the class to instill pride of the plains, Mr. Torvik who interests Evelyn in Galileo and the greater universe, Mr. Goldman who is "all breathy and excited" about math, and Ms. Jenkins who Mr. Goldman calls "the Copernicus of Kansas."

Despite the threatening wall cloud that ends the novel, it is a fun read.