Hurling herself against a wall of fabricated boulders and cracks and trying to scrabble her way to the top becomes Sam's passion.

In its own way, the working-class world of Gloucester, Mass., is just as tough to exit as some of the other worlds that Goodman has charted.īook Reviews In 'The Chalk Artist,' A Plea For Real-World Connectionĭuring one of the early periods when he's still in town, Mitchell takes Sam to a rock climbing gym. But, mundane as the world may be that Sam depicts, it's also tightly circumscribed by class and culture.

Goodman herself says in an introductory letter to her readers that she feared this 'novel might seem small and simple.' It does. In contrast, the subject of her latest novel - a coming-of-age story called Sam - may at first seem overly familiar. In her over 30-year career, Goodman has distinguished herself as a crack literary cartographer, a scrupulous mapper of closed worlds.įor instance, her 2006 novel, Intuition, transported readers deep into the politics and personal rivalries of an elite cancer research lab Kaaterskill Falls, which came out in 1998 and was a finalist for the National Book Award, was set in the Orthodox Jewish summer community that gave the novel its title. The last couple of years have taught us all to be cautious about our New Year's expectations, but any year that begins with the publication of a new novel by Allegra Goodman promises - just promises - to be starting off right.

Sam & dave dig a hole