"Art in America": It's hard to corral all that Colorado quirkiness

"Art in America"

by Ron McLarty

Viking, 367 pp., $25.95

Ron McLarty's new novel begins with a hilarious prologue: a catalog of the complete works of one Steven Kearney. Among Kearney's ill-advised (and unpublished) string of literary projects are such gems as an 822-page play trilogy with 126 characters, about the life and times of a humble Catholic choir director.

There are other spots of satirical mirth in McLarty's tale of comedy and romance in a busy little Colorado hamlet called Creedmore. But there is also a lot of stop-and-go, plot-driven traffic, and a few quirky characters too many to track and arouse one's consistent interest.

One of the most engaging figures is that prolific failed author Kearney, a sweetly deluded innocent who hits bottom in Manhattan and, with the encouragement of his best friend Roarke (a lesbian theater director), accepts a commission to write a historical pageant in faraway Creedmore.

Not unexpectedly, Kearney finds his bliss in the Rockies. He slowly establishes intimacy with Molly, a feisty painter recovering from a mastectomy. And he locates an odd but rejuvenating outlet for his literary gifts in Creedmore's colorful past and volatile present.

Kearney's struggle is more or less the central focus of the story. But the narrative also veers off busily in other directions, to keep tabs on a crusty local sheriff, a determined river rafter, assorted would-be eco-terrorists, a 95-year-old landowner and a cowboy poet, among others.

The result is an attempt at an overview of a folksy but conflicted community — a town mural of interrelated personalities converging in a modern Wild West bristling with tensions over individual liberty, environmental concerns and historical correctness.

A fine goal. But McLarty's execution is inconsistently captivating — and, in the end, predictably sentimental as Kearney finds love, landowners compromise with environmentalists and small-town living trumps urban angst, once again.