Hair of a Fallen Angel

Meet Janelle, a girl with flame-red hair and singing chops who rides an old Schwinn, lives in a ramshackle house with a mosquito problem and takes up with the crocodile brawler, Stevie-J and his magenta Corvette. It's a high stakes twosome for a girl who cuts toenails in a barber shop and sees herself as invisible as corn waiting to be shucked from the husk. Tepper's alluringly visceral prose engages the reader's senses-the heat and honeysuckle, the stickiness of waffles topped with ice cream. Ready for a date with destiny shinier than a karaoke bar, Tepper's Janelle, the girl who never thought big, is a joyous creature whose light illuminates the novel's darker corners.