RIMWALKERS

A beautifully written story of a ``growing-up'' summer on an Illinois farm, recollected 20 years later by Victoria, who was then a shy, self-effacing girl of 14, overshadowed by her ebullient younger sister Sara. Victoria and her two male cousins, all outsiders in different ways, become a tightly bonded trio that gradually shuts Sara out, leading to near-tragedy when Sara attempts to emulate their ``rimwalking''—walking a thin ledge above danger (e.g., on the roofbeams of a crumbling old house, the railings of an abandoned bridge, or the rim of a huge grain wagon). The themes of sibling conflict and growth through risk-taking, the saga of family history, and even a tantalizingly ambiguous ghost story are seamlessly interwoven, while the rural setting is rendered with complete authority. Grove's earlier plots were driven by social problems (farm foreclosure in Good-Bye, My Wishing Star; unemployment, alcoholism, and witch-hunting in Junglerama; homelessness in The Fastest Friend in the West). Here her gift for characterization allows events to flow from personalities and their interactions. A talented novelist, hitting her stride. (Fiction. 10-14)