Mysterious Ways

The second volume in Terry Davis's celebrated coming-of-age trilogy, Mysterious Ways offers a fresh and penetrating view of how perilous it can be simply to grow up. Holden Caulfield comes to mind immediately, but Davis's protagonist, Karl Russell, travels a longer road, darkened by the death of his family, the shadow of the Vietnam War, and a mysterious malady that transforms his life. Written in day book form, the book covers six months of the narrator's life. With its sudden descent into physical and spiritual peril, Mysterious Ways provides a startling addition to the Bildungsroman tradition in American literature: a new definition of beauty. For the swiftness and clarity of its prose, for its unique and unforgettable narrator, and for many other gifts it offers, this novel will be read for decades. Terry Davis is also the author of Vision Quest and If Rock and Roll Were a Machine. He lives in Mankato, New Mexico, and Spokane, Washington.