SWEET AND VICIOUS

Enchanting debut novel by Schickler (Kissing in Manhattan, stories: 2001), who stitches together a kind of crazy-quilt picaresque that seems to be inspired in equal measure by Pulp Fiction and Parsifal.

There’s an unhappy hood named Henry Dante who works for the creepy Chicago mobster Honey Pobrinkis. Honey (who isn’t above freezing people to death in restaurant coolers) has just managed to buy a seven-stone diamond collection known as the Planets through a middleman who subsequently pockets the stones and plans to flee the country with them. Along with Honey’s other two strong-arm guys—his sinister nephew Roger and screwbally, comic-foil Floyd—Dante is sent to bring them back. But when Roger tries to turn the pickup into a hit, Dante spares the mark, punches out both of his partners, and takes the Planets himself. What do you do when you’ve beat up Honey’s nephew and stolen $40 million worth of ice? You hit the road, of course, and don’t ask where. That will eventually bring you face-to-face with Grace McGlone in Janesville, Wisconsin. The daughter of a devout God-fearing mother and a worthless, unknown father, Grace is a kind of Manichean schizophrenic, a bit like Lara from Dr. Zhivago, who manages to fall in love with Christ despite being raped by her mother’s revivalist preacher: a Christian gospel radio show evangelist by the name of Bertram Block. When Grace and Dante meet at the car wash in Janesville, it’s love at first sight—albeit a very strange love indeed. The deep-down honorable Dante confesses his mob past to Grace, upon which she proceeds to marry him and help him get away. As they flee across the country to outrun Honey’s inevitable retribution, they give away the Planets one by one, until, after a climactic showdown at another God’s Will revival, there’s nothing left but Earth. But, in the end, Earth is enough.

Serious fun and a rare, rich feast for many: Schickler’s unabashed use of allegory and his skillful weaving of the dark and comical make him one of the best new voices in years.