What Is It With These Debut Novelsts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      As Carole King wrote, "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

                                     Tiffany McDaniel's debut novel "The Summer That Melted Everything " is a loser, because she is so obviously one of these writers who wants to be Harper Lee, Carson McCullers, even Shirley Jackson.  Forget it, Tiff!  They got there, first!

                                       The story takes place in Breathed., Ohio, in the Summer of 1984, which can stand in for any hick burg south of the Mason Dixon line.  The Bliss family is the center of the story,
with Fielding the whirlwind of the center.  The father, clearly the Atticus Finch type, invites the Devil, who comes to town--and suddenly appears a thirteen-year-old Afro American boy, named Sal.  Now, it starts out literally, with him saying he is the Devil, but as the story progresses, I got the idea I was morphing into racial metaphor.  Make up your mind, Tiff!  What do you want to do with this?

                                         She never really finds her way.  When she feels ready, the story comes to a grinding halt, after a near race riot, and the Blisses move on.  And how about that for a metaphorical name, Bliss?

                                          One thing McDaniel does well is write in the voice of a boy.  The relationship between Fielding and his older brother, Grand, was so real, I completely forgot a female was writing this.  So, there is evidence of some talent here.

                                           The author just needs to find herself a good, narrative device.