Disappearing act: Author conjures up parents' worst nightmare
by Rosemary Herbert

Friday, December 27, 2002

What if your young child disappeared right before your eyes? What if he remained missing?

How would you deal with the inexplicability? How would you bear up under the frightening circumstances? Would you be closer to your spouse, or feel hopelessly alone?

Hannah and Justin Woodrow wrestle with these questions in Anne Ursu's gripping new novel, "The Disapparation of James" (Theia/Hyperion, $23.95). When the Woodrows take their two children to the circus to celebrate daughter Greta's seventh birthday, they are excited when their 5-year-old son, James, is chosen by a clown magician to participate in a magic trick.

But after the clown spins James in a chair under the spotlight, the boy disappears. When the clown cannot produce their boy, the frantic parents are plunged into a world where nothing is reliable.

In a telephone interview from the Mountain View, Calif., home she shares with her husband, Ursu said she likes to work with "what if" questions. As a 29-year-old ready to start a family, she often wonders, "How do parents strike that balance between fear and letting kids grow? How do you bring up kids in a world that is unsafe? How do parents deal with the specter of loss?"

These are heavy questions, considering Ursu is the product of a happy family. The daughter of a lawyer and a psychologist, she grew up in a secure family circle, in which books and the arts were highly valued. She attended Brown University, and worked as bookseller and then as a writer for the City Pages in Minneapolis and the Portland Phoenix in Maine. Happily married with a successful first novel, "Spilling Clarence," Ursu would seem to be blessed with a worry-free life.

But during adolescence she was profoundly shocked when a schoolmate collapsed and died from a rare medical condition at school. "Our school principal gathered us together and said, 'Despite the valiant efforts of the doctor, Max Schulman has died,' " Ursu recalled. "Then there was just this wail coming up from the students. That wail coming up stayed with me for the rest of my life."

The sudden tragedy made Ursu realize "some things are out of your control," she said. And it sensitized her to mundane situations that could swiftly turn dangerous.

"When I was 26 and had a clog in my drain, my mother said, 'You know not to drink the Drano, don't you?' I thought then, 'What if I have kids and I don't tell them not to drink the Drano, not to mix chlorine with bleach?' "

Even worse, what if you do everything right and your child still meets with the dangerous unknown?

That's what happens in "The Disapparition of James." "I consciously wanted Hannah and Justin to do everything right, to have money, resources, intelligence - but find that none of that really matters. Nothing can keep them safe," Ursu said.

She also contrasts the couple's floundering in the face of James' disappearance with their young daughter's healthy coping strategies. The portrait of Greta is so winning that readers may well wonder if she's modeled on the author, but Ursu said she was less outgoing as a kid.

Some of Ursu's statements about living in an unsafe world may lead readers to speculate the book is a response to the events of Sept. 11. Ursu said she began the book well before then, but as she wrote new drafts in December 2001, "I found myself making the community's response much more important" in helping the Woodrows face their loss.

Readers must finish the book to find out if James reappears. But along the way Ursu conjures interest in much more than that. The magic here lies in watching characters grow "under extreme circumstances," Ursu said.

Rosemary Herbert is the Boston Herald's book review editor.