DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709180500

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY AUDREY KNOTH 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

THE DEAD TEACH A LESSON - ABOUT LIFE

A GRACIOUS PLENTY

SHERI REYNOLDS

Harmony Books. 208 pp. $21.

Like most people, Finch Nobles enjoys spending time with her friends. Unlike most, though, her friends are the dead. These relationships, and how they teach Finch about life, are the focus of Sheri Reynolds' new novel, A Gracious Plenty.

Finch, in her 40s, is the caretaker of a cemetery in a small Southern town. The post, which she took over from her father upon his death, suits her. She's been a loner since childhood, when she was badly disfigured by a pot of scalding water. Her consciousness of her looks makes her unable to befriend the living. Instead, she gets to know the new entries in the graveyard by talking to them and listening to their stories.

Finch's experiences illustrate death as a natural extension of living, for, as Reynolds writes, ``The wisest voices speak least. As in life, the wise ones have usually been around the longest. They've had the most time to harvest insight. They speak softly as they lighten, fade away.

``The newest of the Dead have to lean into their own deaths to hear them. The wisest of the Dead are pushed away, bit by bit, by the understanding of the new.

``But there's more to it. The stories make it bearable to be. The stories make it bearable to have lived at all.''

Through deepening friendships with several of the dead, Finch begins to come out of the shell she has grown to protect herself. She gets to know Lucy, a young woman brought back to be buried in her hometown after dying in a far-off city. Finch had been acquainted with her as a girl, when Lucy had been entered in numerous child beauty pageants, and she didn't initially welcome Lucy's burial at the graveyard: ``I have never invested much in beauty or trusted in sweetness. By the time she actually arrived, I was fairly unhappy about sharing my cemetery with her. It seemed for a while like people just loved her too much,'' she says.

In her deepening conversations with Lucy, however, Finch learns the woman wasn't murdered, as her family claimed; rather, she took her own life. Finch discovers the unhappiness behind Lucy's perfect looks. This secret is just one of a number that Finch uncovers in her discussions with the dead - including the circumstances surrounding the long-ago death of a baby. As she confronts townspeople with what she's learned from those in the cemetery, Finch is drawn back to the living. She even has the prospect of a relationship with Leonard Livingston, a local police officer who is the dead baby's older brother.

The premise of A Gracious Plenty - in which the dead teach us about life - is intriguing. And throughout the book, Reynolds' stylistic talent is clear. A passage in which she talks of how the dead interact with nature displays a poetic touch with rhythm:

``The ones who died old cue the rooster to crow and dismiss the dawn each morning. They time the tides, give directions to the wind. . . . The ones who died strong push the rivers downstream, pull at clouds and keep the sky in motion. They green the grass and tug it taller, grab tree trunks and stretch them upward in tiny bits.

``The ones who died passionate kiss each bud and pinch its base until it pops open, surprised. The ones who died shy string spiderwebs, almost invisible. There's a job for everybody, on any given day. The Dead are generous with their gifts to the living.''

The novel is less successful in its character development and plot. The transformation of the relationship between Finch and Leonard, who had known and disliked each other as children, is not drawn clearly enough. Similarly, the revelation of how Leonard's baby brother died many years before seems a bit pat.

Reynolds, who currently teaches creative writing and literature at Old Dominion University, gained national renown when Oprah Winfrey featured her well-received previous novel, The Rapture of Canaan, on her talk show's book club. Her first book, Bitterroot Landing, also drew praise. This latest work, even with its flaws, again proves Reynolds is a writer worth watching. MEMO: Audrey Knoth is a free-lance writer and vice president of Goldman

& Associates in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

READING

Sheri Reynolds will read from her new novel, ``A Gracious Plenty,''

on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Prince Books & Coffeehouse, 109 E. Main

St., Norfolk. Call 622-9223.

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