Novel deals with romance

Fate, love and redemption are the primary themes of Tiffanie DeBartolo's first novel.
By THERESA HEGEL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
"God-Shaped Hole" by Tiffanie DeBartolo (Sourcebooks Landmark, $12); to be released in early May.
"If your intentions are pure I'm seeking a friend for the end of the world."
When Trixie Jordan, a cynical jewelry designer who lives in LA despite her loathing for the city, answers the intriguing personal ad, she doesn't have any expectations. She's not even the type of person who reads the personals.
She certainly doesn't realize that Jacob Grace -- the talented, soulful writer who placed the ad -- will turn out to be her "Siamese soul lover" "connected from the beginning by blood and veins."
Themes: "God-Shaped Hole," Tiffanie DeBartolo's debut novel, plays with themes of fate, love and redemption. Through Trixie and Jacob's relationship, DeBartolo also explores how the burden of our memory affects our present circumstances. Both Trixie and Jacob struggle to overcome emotional scars left by absent or inattentive fathers.
Though they feel an immediate connection and fall almost effortlessly in love, Jacob and Trixie have obstacles -- mostly caused by their own insecurities -- impeding their romance. Their insecurities cause them to split up for a brief, and excruciating, period.
Eventually, Trixie and Jacob are able to come to terms with their pasts and thus solidify their present.
Once Jacob completes and sells the novel he is writing, the couple plans to leave the shallowness of LA, move someplace more real -- namely Memphis, Tenn. -- and build a life together.
That's where DeBartolo's theme of destiny enters the picture. When Trixie was 12, a fortuneteller told her that her one true love would die young, leaving Trixie all alone.
Portentous dreams: Though the memory fades with time, the ominous prediction remains lodged in the back of Trixie's mind, haunting her relationship with Jacob. Not long after they start dating, Trixie begins having recurring, portentous dreams, in which an eerily serene Jacob is swallowed by a whirlpool.
With all of these warnings, Jacob's death by drowning at the novel's climax doesn't come as much of a shock, so I won't feel guilty revealing it here.
However, DeBartolo's premise is not as hokey or maudlin as it may sound. DeBartolo writes with a playful irreverence that keeps this tragic love story from sinking into the mires of sentimentality.
DeBartolo's words have an earthy lyricism, her characters are unique and captivating and her story has moments of emotional and intellectual depth.
In "God-Shaped Hole," Trixie -- and in a broader sense, DeBartolo -- attempts to deal with existential questions and searches for the meaning of faith in a capricious, cruel world.
hegel@vindy.com