THE HOCKENFUR TANGENT

Two New Yorkers dive into a tempestuous love affair in Kingery’s debut novel.

One winter day in 2000, 22-year-old Leah Manis and a man named Jareth crash into each other’s lives—literally—when she collides with him on an icy Manhattan sidewalk and they land in a heap. They quickly strike up an unlikely rapport after Jareth, with a twisted ankle and covered in Leah’s takeout, admits to playfully pocketing her wallet, noting that city folk are “tricksters and opportunists.” They soon agree to meet at a diner for lunch the next day. The discussion is fast and light: Leah loves Jackie Chan movies and sometimes spray-paints graffiti in the shape of a teacup in tribute to the actor (who collects teacups); Jareth reveals that he’s a phone-sex operator and comments that he’s never had a bad gyro. They meet again and again, and after Leah brings Jareth back to her apartment, the two spiral into a fast-moving, logorrheic, and self-referential intimacy. Three of Leah’s secrets come out: She suffers from a mitochondrial disorder that causes her to sleep for 18 hours each day; she’s the wealthy orphaned child of two famous doctors; and she’s a virgin. As the kinetic relationship races along, will the pair save each other from their respective dissatisfactions with life? The book is mostly dialogue, which proves to be a weakness and a strength. Kingery writes urgent, unexpected sentences, and readers will feel swept up in the conversation—almost as much as Leah and Jareth are. However, it’s not without imperfections, as both parties speak in such an odd and oblique manner that the frequent lack of dialogue tags can leave one lost as to who’s speaking: “ ‘What if you had a kajillion hockenfurs?’ ‘A whatity-what now?’ ‘Exactly one kajillion hockenfurs. Hockenfurs are defined as the energy you need to live.’ ” The plot, such as it is, is surprisingly engrossing, as Kingery is happy to push her couple into increasingly strange, unexpected, and existential territory. Readers will likely walk away excited to see what Kingery delivers in the future.

A slim, cerebral, and often compelling novel about an offbeat relationship.