DATE: Sunday, August 10, 1997               TAG: 9707310540

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY AUDREY KNOTH 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

``LITTLE MISS STRANGE'' DOESN'T QUITE FIND ALL SHE IS LOOKING FOR

LITTLE MISS STRANGE

JOANNA ROSE

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 384 pp. $19.95.

The late 1960s and early 1970s are remembered as an era of rootlessness - when many sought to break with the generations before them through drugs, wandering, communal living. Amid this formless milieu, author Joanna Rose sets a tale of a girl's search for her identity. In so doing, she illustrates that regardless of time and place, each one of us craves an understanding of where we came from.

Little Miss Strange opens in 1969 in Denver, where young Sarajean is being raised by a Vietnam veteran, Jimmy Henry. As with so many people then, Jimmy's circumstances are vague. Odd jobs seem to be his source of a living, and he uses heroin, although he tries not to do so in front of Sarajean. He is a good parent to the little girl. Despite the uncertainty of his life, he has created a home with the small, stable rituals children so thrive on. Some of the novel's best passages, such as one describing their morning routine, achieve a poetic grace in centering on these moments:

``Jimmy Henry's alarm clock went off every morning . . . ringing in his bedroom. Then barefeet sound coming out to the kitchen floor and stopping to light the fire under the tea kettle with a wooden match from the red box.

``Jimmy Henry opened my bedroom door and he said,

`` `Who's in there sleeping?'

``He said that every morning.

``He came in and sat on my bed and he said,

`` `It's time to greet the day.'

``That's what Jimmy Henry said after who's in there sleeping.''

Sarajean is a child of the times - she attends Free School, where she learns to make plant hangers, listens to zither music and sits in a ``spirit circle'' with other youngsters, taking turns ``telling something new about our life trip.'' The adults around her have names such as ``Lady Jane'' and existences as imprecise as Jimmy Henry's. Still, Sarajean has a feeling of security, because while she never calls Jimmy ``Dad,'' she assumes that he is her father.

Her assumption is shaken and her life begins to take a new direction, however, when a woman named Tina Blue moves into a neighboring apartment. There are undercurrents between Tina Blue and Jimmy Henry. Sarajean doesn't understand them, but she senses them in instances such as this one, in which Jimmy Henry insists that Tina Blue brush the little girl's hair:

``I turned away so Tina Blue could brush my hair like Jimmy Henry wanted her to. After a moment, she did, slow, soft. Careful. It almost tickled. Jimmy Henry sat back down in the big chair. It stayed that way for a long time. Jimmy Henry sitting in the chair. Watching. Tina Blue brushing. Me sitting still.''

After Tina Blue suddenly leaves, Sarajean discovers clues that her origins may be different than she has thought. Perhaps Jimmy Henry is not her father; maybe Tina Blue is her mother. Her quest to understand this mystery unfolds in ensuing years and finishes in a cemetery in another state.

The premise of Little Miss Strange is intriguing, and Rose has a graceful touch. However, as the novel tells of Sarajean's exploration, it takes on a sameness. The people surrounding Sarajean go to thrift stores, get high, wander around town, but, frankly, nothing much happens. While this scenario may have been true to the times, it's not a page-turner. It's all too tempting to simply skip to the end to see how things turn out.

Joanna Rose has published short stories in the past; this novel is her first. Rose's talent is clear, but it asks for a tighter editor's hand on the next outing. MEMO: Audrey Knoth is a free-lance writer and vice president of

Goldman & Associates Advertising and Public Relations in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Joanna Rose

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