READERS AND WRITERS: Tragedy within a family
Mary Ann Grossmann, Book Critic

Minneapolis native Anne Ursu, living temporarily in California, has given us a fine New Year's gift with her new novel, "The Disapparation of James.'' If other books published in 2003 are as good as this one, we're in for exciting reads.

Ursu's debut novel, "Spilling Clarence,'' was a slightly surreal story about a Minnesota town where residents are flooded with memories after a pharmaceutical plant releases a chemical into the air. It was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program and by the nation's independent booksellers for their Book Sense 76 promotion.

"The Disapparation of James'' is even more surreal in its exploration of a family's reactions when a little boy literally vanishes into thin air.

It happens when the Woodrow family goes to the circus to celebrate Greta's seventh birthday. The mother, Hannah, is a slightly harried physician. Her husband, Justin, is a stay-at-home dad. Both dearly love Greta and James, her 5-year-old brother. James is a nearly silent boy who worries his parents because he's shy and seems a little slow to develop. So they are astonished when James volunteers to help a clown with a magic trick. The clown puts the little boy on a chair and balances the chair on his chin:

"The drum roll continues, the clown staggers back and forth a bit, but James never wobbles, and then, the clown sticks his arms up straight in the air, the drum roll flourishes and then —

"And then, James is gone.

"Just gone.

"Poof!''

At first, the frantic parents think James is backstage and will join them after the show. But the little boy doesn't return, and soon the auditorium is surrounded by police cars and detectives are questioning the half-crazed parents. When they watch a videotape of the clown's act, they realize it wasn't a magic trick. James disappeared for no reason, and their world shatters.

Hannah becomes nearly catatonic, self-medicating with sleeping pills. Justin is sure the clown took his child and wants physical revenge. Only Greta confronts the problem by studying magic and drawing endless pictures of her brother.

The narrative weaves in and out of the present, with one chapter devoted to what would have happened to the family in an alternative universe in which James had never disappeared. In that scenario, the excited Greta has her birthday party with other little girls. This is a vividly written chapter; you can see the birthday girl madly running around in her tutu, her face covered in glitter.

Hannah and Justin are likeable, and only a stonehearted reader would not feel sympathy for them or for any parent whose child disappears. The secondary characters are well drawn, too. Tom, the detective, chafes to be on the street trying to solve the case, but he's assigned to support the family by answering the phone and accepting what seems like tons of food from sympathetic neighbors.

Readers who want stories neatly wrapped up will be disappointed. There is no explanation of why James disappeared, and the tantalizing clues about his developmental challenges never go anywhere. Does his personality have anything to do with his disappearance? We aren't told.

But Ursu doesn't seem as much interested in how and why the boy vanished as she does in exploring the fierce and all-consuming love of parents for their children.