Leisure reading

'Not Me'

By Michael Lavigne

Random House, $24.95.

In the first pages of Michael Lavigne's novel, we meet his main character, a man who has not quite grown up. Michael Rose has come from New Jersey to Florida to be with his dying father. Michael is an underemployed, divorced comedian. His father is a Holocaust survivor.

The father, Heshel, is beloved in his retirement community. He has dedicated his life to Jewish causes and good deeds.

The other retirees try to befriend Michael, to help him through his father's last month of life. But Michael won't let them get close. Nor will Michael telephone his adolescent son, Josh, who misses him desperately. Instead, Michael spends a lot of time thinking about his ex-wife.

But if the past has a weird hold on Michael, he is about to be sucked into something even more weird — the sinkhole of lies and confusion that is his father's past.

The novel begins as Michael's father hands him a Cheez Whiz carton full of journals. Michael never knew his father kept journals. There was a lot he didn't know about his father, apparently.

As he begins to read the journals, Michael begins to fear that his father was actually a Nazi during the Second World War. It seems crazy. It seems impossible. But what other explanation is there for the story unfolding in the journals?

"Not Me" is Lavigne's first novel and it is compelling. It is funny and sad and the characters are well-drawn. The pace of the novel is nearly perfect and the title is perfect. — Susan Whitney

'Rain in the Valley'

By Helen Papanikolas

Utah State University Press, $17.95 (softcover).

Helen Papanikolas, whose articles and memoirs chronicled the Greek experience in Utah, finished this novel before her death in 2004. She also wrote "The Time of the Little Black Bird," "The Apple Falls from the Apple Tree: Stories" and "Small Bird, Tell Me: Stories of Greek Immigrants in Utah," which were well-received by historians. In fact, Papanikolas became a highly-respected, legendary figure in the Utah/Greek culture.

This book is devoted to three generations of the Demas family, who eventually leave the coal mines that drew them from Greece to America. They become wool growers and small businessmen, and they Americanize their name from Demopoulos.