Up High in the Trees

May 7, 2007
T
he Asperger's afflicted narrator of Brinkman's sincere, sober debut struggles to cope with his pregnant mother's recent death after she was hit by a car. Already keenly sensitive to emotional and sensory stimuli, Sebby Lane finds his mother's loss almost unbearable; he acts out at school, biting a girl on the shoulder. Sebby's father, Stephen, is nearly unable to function, and, in an attempt to help both Sebby and himself, takes Sebby to the family summer home, hoping that a change of scenery will ease their mourning. Once there, however, Stephen slips ever deeper into his misery. Sebby, however, reaches out, writing letters to his teacher and befriending two unpleasant neighbor children. Though the narrative direction is muzzy and the conclusion is saccharine with forced uplift, the cast is portrayed with keen sympathy and sensitivity—no easy task with a young, on-the-spectrum narrator. Told in brief poetic vignettes, the novel moves quickly and episodically, like a series of snapshots from the camera of Sebby's unique mind.

June 1, 2007
Brinkman's debut novel about the impact of a mother's sudden deathperhaps suicideon a dysfunctional middle-class family calls up both Mark Haddon's "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and Dave Eggers's "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". This time, the story revolves around nine-year-old Sebastian Lane, aka Sebby. Brinkman clearly understands emotional pain and in Sebby has created a heroic child protagonist. Sadly, her success in this regard makes the book's deficits all the more glaring; she is credible only when delving deeply into the child's psyche to reveal the intersection of anguish, loss, and regression. Other passages are harder to accept; for example, when Sebby's dad plucks him out of school and takes him to the family's summer home, no one bats an eye. Indeed, Sebby seems to live in a world in which teachers, social workers, truant officers, and child welfare specialists are completely oblivious. Worse, it is only when Sebby's father is hospitalized, leaving the boy in the care of his teenage siblings, that anyone pays even a modicum of attention to the unraveling household. A disappointing first novel from someone who's considered a writer to watch; recommended for large fiction collections only. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/07.]Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY

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