Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990                   TAG: 9004110014
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: F-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Reviewed by MICHAEL VERDON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`COMING-OF-AGE' NOVELS WELL CRAFTED

THE HISTORY OF LUMINOUS MOTION By Scott Bradfield. Knopf. $17.95.

Coming of age is the theme running through both of these novels, though they hold many other things in common.

Both are extremely well written - a rarity in these days of the fast buck and fast read - and both cover territory that is on the pale of modern literature. That both are first novels makes them even more remarkable.

"The Outskirts" is the story of Albie Santamoravia, a high school senior growing up in a small town in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Trapped by the smallness of the town and what he perceives as its hypocrisy, Albie and his friend Carl take to the woodlands beyond.

There they build a log cabin and there they meet Martin, a charismatic youth who rides a motorcycle, hunts with a crossbow and quotes Nietzche. The three form an odd triangle, and when Albie is pushed from the house by his father, they leave town behind and become "self-sufficient."

Instead of communing with nature as they intended, the three enter a heart of darkness where hunger, paranoia and anger become the rule. They steal from a nearby campsite when they cannot live off the forest. Martin is obsessed with remaining; he becomes so domineering he beats Albie badly when he threatens to leave. When Martin goes berserk and murders a hobo who had come into the camp, Albie tries to get away, only to be hunted by his two companions.

Stark, a graduate of the Hollins writing program, has written a book as beautiful as it is terrifying. Many of the passages sing, light and airy, particularly when Albie is on a run through the forest. Others - when Albie is being hunted, for example - are fast and gripping. The book moves well, following its own rhythm. It explores the dark corners each of us has somewhere within us, but would rather not acknowledge.

"The History of Luminous Motion" is also a coming-of-age story, though the narrator, Phillip, is only 8. It too dwells on the dark side of life but with a voice that is at once funny, smooth and insightful. "Precocious" is not the word for little Phillip. Alienated, educated and ruthless are more appropriate. Instead of video games, Phillip and friend Rodney spend their time driving around and robbing houses.

They engage in discussions of Marx, materialism, the occult. They smoke Marlboros and drink manhattans. They each fall in love with Beatrice, a 9-year-old feminist. But behind this activity is Phillip's icon: Mom. She moves with a sort of shadowy grace, a larger than life figure whom Phillip adores.

Life with Mom is fine for Phillip. When Dad turns up, Phillip's Oedipus complex plays itself out.

This is a remarkable book, amusing and disconcerting. Its style is so beautifully lyric that its darkness is often lost until the reader understands with a shiver what he or she has just read. Bradfield is a master craftsman, a novelist adrift in a sea of blackness.