Acceptable losses

the long version

Edra Ziesk's debut novel is a story of loss and the effort to replace what is lost with love. Set in a small New Jersey shore town, the narrative traces the intersecting lives of three young people, silhouetted against the backdrop of the tumultuous years that saw the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and spanned the Vietnam War. Fifteen-year-old Joellen Stein, grieving for her mother's untimely death, and Joe Handy, two years older, emotionally stunted by his father's repeated abandonments, come together in an attempt to compensate for their respective losses. Charlieo, Joellen's childhood friend, is left behind as she moves beyond the pale of childish things, into a passion edged in desperation.