EVALORE

English Evalore is thirteen years old, a pain to her teachers, a pain to her parents, a pain to her psychiatrist, and a pain to listen to--this novel is all in her wearyingly present-tense, nonstop neurotic voice. She adores her journalist father but calls him ""Illo"" instead of ""daddy."" She hates (most of the time) her mother, a concentration-camp refugee absorbed in her own writing career. And she's obsessed with Dr. Magnus Brockhauus, the middle-aged shrink she sees at the Clinic. ""He is the patient,"" she thinks, as she watches him for signs of barely controlled lust. Why does he switch her from private sessions to group therapy? Is he afraid of her? Is he madly jealous when Evalore describes her lesbian experimenting with an older girl in the group? Why does he agree to take her for drives in his car? Do you care? Though first-novelist Jones labors hot and heavy at capturing the little-girl-lost-but-devious-Lolita mind and rhythm of Evalore (after poor Dr. B. finally lets loose and beats her, she at last calls Illo ""daddy""), this remains a sterile, clinical exercise--emotionally unfulfilling and psychologically suspect.