'A Map of Tulsa': City easier to identify with than book

I was drawn to “A Map of Tulsa” in part because my wife and I lived in Tulsa immediately after we were married nearly 19 years ago. I was looking forward to revisiting the city in the pages of the Benajmin Lytal's novel. But while the book took me back to familiar places - including the famed Cain's Ballroom and the giant statue at the fairgrounds - I found myself wondering if I might have liked the book better back in those days when I was 23.

Before I go on, I should note that I don't intend to draw broad conclusions about the reading tastes of 23-year-olds or 42-year-olds for that matter. But “A Map of Tulsa” (Penguin Books, 257 pages, $15) is a novel about youth and that period of one's life when one's identity still feels fluid and a chance meeting with another person, especially one who holds herself apart from the mainstream, can redirect one's trajectory and feel fraught with meaning that might last longer than the relationship itself.

While that sort of story might have wide appeal, I found that this particular iteration didn't fully resonate with me.

The novel's narrator is Jim Praley, who returns to Tulsa after his freshman year of college and is soon drawn to Adrienne Booker, an oil heiress who has dropped out (both literally and figuratively) to pursue her art. When tragedy brings them back together, Jim finds himself longing for both Adrienne and the city of his childhood.

Lytal's stylized prose is atmospheric and quirky, and I found that it sometimes wore a little thin when Jim attempts to ascribe meaning to everything and everyone around him. “She cut my hair once,” he tells us of Adrienne, “while I was napping. She demonstrated - what? Presence, ultimately, leaps of faith landing with her silent sense of moment. The way she used to walk down the street.”

It was a pleasure to let a novel take me to the streets of Tulsa again, but Jim Praley, Adrienne Booker, and their peers weren't necessarily the crowd I wanted to hang out with.

Reading

What: Benjamin Lytal reads from “A Map of Tulsa”

Where: Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Cost: Free