'LIGHTNING FIELD' Tale tries to make sense of Los Angeles

Spiotta's fresh voice makes her one of the best new novelists of the year.
By ROB STOUT
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
& quot;Lightning Field, & quot; by Dana Spiotta (Scribner, $23).
The object of both fierce derision and intense glorification, Los Angeles is fertile soil for any first-time novelist. Dana Spiotta's debut finds its grounding in both the irony-laden portraits of ambivalence (a la Bret Easton Ellis) and the slyly written pieces of social commentary on its frequently helpless inhabitants.
Certainly Spiotta has learned to spot the same influences as her predecessors: the mindless materialism, desperation in family, relationships, sex and self-image; and of course the omnipresent sense of longing.
Compared to the rest of the cast, Mina Delano is the one creation who could be considered closest to a heroine. A manager of trendy & quot;concept & quot; restaurants, she struggles to rationalize such surroundings through several coping methods. The most memorable is the exhaustive knowledge of vintage motion pictures which she regularly uses as the only frame of reference to understand her personal and professional life.
Curt: This also provides the author with a number of memorable comparisons recounted in a curt prose that is Mina's thought process. In looking at her home: & quot;It was a Mildred Pierce sort of bungalow. Dr. Seuss, branchless, Betty Boop, shadeless, wind bent, transplanted. & quot;
As the novel proceeds, we come across Mina's other defiant attempts to seek refuge from her desensitized world. One such act (defiant by Los Angeles standards) is an insistence on walking to every destination, long treks which seem to take her past every celebrity-filled cemetery in Hollywood. Refuge also comes in the form of sleeping with two men other than her self-absorbed screenwriter husband, David.
Whether consciously or not, it is Mina's ability to both detach herself from this environment and to embrace it as her only possible livelihood that makes for a somewhat atypical characterization in the present annals of & quot;LA lit. & quot; She is an emotional drifter rejecting the daily routine.
Perfect restaurant: Next we encounter Mina's boss, Lorene, and follow her anal pursuit of the perfect restaurant, one that embodies the perfect atmosphere to attract the perfect clientele. Next to Lorene's preoccupations are those of her housekeeper, Lisa. Lisa's concerns are more paranoid in nature. She lives in fear that the E. coli virus will kill her children, or that they will be kidnapped off the streets in broad daylight.
The focus of the novel is the obsessive nature of three very different personalities all hopelessly trapped on the cultural treadmill that is modern-day Los Angeles. Eventually, each character confronts his own obsessions, but with mixed results.
This is one of the best novels from a first-time novelist this year.
Spiotta splendidly captures the shallowness of a constantly changing lifestyle, where nothing really matters for long. Her polished sophistication and fresh voice deserve special attention in this crowded field of interpretations and is hopefully one to be heard from again.