FICTION

CHEEVY by Gerald DiPego (Little, Brown: $22.95; 304 pp.). The prologue of Gerald DiPego’s well-written but flawed novel concerns a heavy mirror that unexpectedly falls off the wall and smashes into countless shards. That event, and all it symbolizes, becomes the book’s central metaphor.

Claude Cheever--”Cheevy”--has spent his life running like a hamster on a wheel in the desperate hope of keeping his family together. His efforts have met with varying degrees of success. But when Cheevy turns 20, the mirror finally crashes down, forcing his family to deal with each other head-on for the first time. Those who have been there disappear, those who have been absent reappear, and tragedy strikes.

DiPego is the sort of writer who makes it all look effortless. The plot rolls gracefully along with no primer coat showing, no grinding of gears. Cheevy’s voice feels completely organic. But there are large problems with the other characters. Every member of the Cheever family has a hobby bordering on obsession. They all possess distinctive personality traits placed on them like a stamp from some giant bureaucracy, so that instead of being people, they feel like connected bits of shtick. Still, “Cheevy” is an engaging novel.

* GERALD DiPEGO will speak on “Delving the Imagination: Fiction Writing” at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Book on Sunday, April 21, at 1:30 p.m.