THE TV GUIDANCE COUNSELOR

Michael, 16, relates events leading up to what looks like his suicide attempt, though he's not sure that's what it was; in the end, readers won't be sure either, which is what makes his story so compelling. Michael and his divorced mother are living less affluently than when they were supported by his photographer father. Michael gets a job at a small supermarket, where he encounters a woman dubbed by his best friend Ricky as ``The TV Guidance Counselor'' (she thumbs through TV Guide). Using the camera his father gave him before he went away for a year's shoot, he snaps her picture. School, a girlfriend, and photography all give Michael reasons to stay away from home, where his mother seems to be turning to Ricky for comfort. But the more time Michael spends looking through a viewfinder, the more he feels inescapably boxed in. That such an ordinary young man can find himself plunging off a bridge will shock readers; his burdens don't seem enormous at first glance. But the first- person narration offers enough insights into Michael's world, and into the depth of his feelings, to make his actions comprehensible—and his survival something of a miracle. A well- wrought first novel. (Fiction. 12+)