THE COLLAPSIBLE WORLD

Marino debuts with a capably detailed but psychologically only half-convincing tale of a dysfunctional San Francisco family: a father who's consumed by drugs, a mother who disappears, and two grown daughters who vent their anger as though born to the task.

Older sister Nina, 27, has a genius IQ and a photographic memory. To spite her parents, though (who pushed too hard for a career in medicine, etc.), she's now a stripper at The Trapdoor, where she's, well, outstanding in her field. Sister Lillie, at 24, has a different problem—namely the dyslexia that kept her from even nearing the academic glories expected of her after Nina's example. Add to this mix the fact that Larry and Midge (that would be Mom and Dad, except that in this family, they've always been addressed by first name) are in fact fairly strange birds, hostile yet weak-willed Midge susceptible to tantrums, and anesthesiologist Larry a heavy drug abuser for the past 25 years, since joining his hospital's staff. The story starts as Midge, deciding she's finally had enough, leaves a note and splits the scene for keeps—a dodge that upsets narrator Lillie more than it does the reader, who doesn't quite understand why things are changed so very much or why the sisters think now something must be done about Dad's drugs. The story has to go on, though, as Lillie loses sleep, smokes and drinks way much (as if destined to go Daddy's way), and in her rather sophomoric rage even jeopardizes an affair with bona-fide nice guy cop Rick. Another bolt from the blue hits when Lillie's beloved mentor and soulmate Thomas Finch (owner of the cartography shop she's worked in since girlhood) dies of a heart attack. Angry Lillie will get worse before getting better.

Loving evocations of San Francisco are a pleasure, but Lillie's Sturm und Drang feels more collegiate than apocalyptic.