NOVEL
Coleman's second novel is, at least superficially, the story of a Southern family reeling from the death of a middle son. At 26, Nick Rutledge is killed in a head-on collision, leaving older brother Cage spiraling into bipolar disorder and volatile Harper, nine years younger, trying to pick up the pieces. But the real subject of the book is manic depression: Coleman has a deep understanding of mania's seductive power and of the cycles of breakdown that make Cage describe his life as "a heap of shattered glass." Spanning 15 years in Cage's complex story, the author sometimes makes leaps between decades and voices that can be disorienting; moreover, his ending veers toward the sentimental. Still, this honest group portrait of Cage and his weary, hopeful family rings true.
