FLOATING

By Robin Troy '96

MTV/Simon & Schuster Pocket Books

$12, 238 pp.

MTV and literature? The two seem about as compatible as Apple Jacks and peanut butter. But with the channel's first fiction contest, MTV has managed to find a novel that sets the demands of pop culture alongside the standards of literary fiction and emerges as a unified whole. The winner of the contest, Robin Troy '96 delivers Floating, a novel that is young and entertaining enough to be MTV, yet mature and developed enough to be thought-provoking and powerful.

A compelling blend of substantial issues and engaging action, Floating is a novel about a woman, Ruby, who falls in love with her husband's brother while her husband is away in jail. Addressing the difficult issues of an individual's responsibility to her family, to her friends and to her own happiness, the novel attempts to weigh the importance of love and loyalty and to confront the difficulties that arise when emotion and reason conflict.

Floating's strongest moments come in the opening and closing of the novel. Troy reaches out to capture her audience early, sending the reader quickly backward through layers of time and shifting smoothly and non-sequentially from one character to the next until the reader has become deeply familiar with each.

From a preview of the emotional turmoil of the final scene of the novel to a reflective image of Ruby's son Brian floating in a swimming pool, trying to block out his family's emotional distress, each short scene at the beginning of Floating reveals an important layer in the history of Ruby and her family. These layers combine to form a startlingly clear image, building in the space of only four chapters, detailed and emotionally charged histories and perspectives for each of the four main characters of the novel, without resorting to tiresome exposition, and effectively setting the stage for the ethical and emotional dilemmas that each character will face.

As the story unfolds, Floating provides an engaging view of life in a small western town. The events of the novel revolve around the expected birth of a foal from an aging horse; the distance of the town from its surroundings emphasizes the difficulty that both Ruby and her husband each have in trying to leave and escape the problems in their lives and their relationship; and the seasonal brush fire that burns near the town for much of the novel, leaving a hillside scorched and bare, parallels the destructive progress of Ruby's emotional journey and her difficult opportunities for renewal.

Certainly, there are a few awkward moments. The writing feels somewhat uncertain at times, as if the author is searching for a few lines for the right words to express an emotion and then gives up and moves on, having stated but not shown the emotions involved.

But for the most part, Troy is engaging and effective. Her imagery infuses Floating with energy and immediacy, bringing the desires and heart-wrenching dilemmas of her characters a sickening sense of reality. Whatever her other characteristics, Ruby is true to life in that she cannot be separated from her history and her responsibilities. She cannot simply find her true love, ride off into the sunset, and live happily ever after, not because she is uncommonly weak, but because she is uncommonly real. In the closing scene of the novel, Ruby is forced to chose between leaving with her husband's brother and remaining as her husband comes home. Clearly, regardless of her decision, Ruby will face guilt and unhappiness. "Happily ever after" is not an option.

Each of Troy's characters has flaws, and each makes mistakes, but their flaws and mistakes, however destructive, are human. The characters, therefore, are all sympathetic, representing the different sides of a sticky triangle that most of us have probably had to face, in one form or another, from more than one point of view.

Floating is touching in a serious and real sort of way, dealing with difficulties that, though perhaps less dramatically, can be extended to a wide range of experience. The novel is imaginative, insightful, and quite well written. MTV and literature? They still sound like Apple Jacks and peanut butter, but if Floating is any indication, MTV Books may have a future in fiction after all.