Blue

As this masterful new novel by Ohio ( End of the Empire ) opens, Ricki Jones is at the site of the plane crash that killed her twin sister, Israellen. The book then retreats into an intricate series of flashbacks that reveal the complicated relationships of the main characters from 1945 to the 1980s. Isra,a ballet dancer, is living out theirmother Liberty's aspirations--she had dreamed of dancing at Carnegie Hall. Ricki is a successful blues guitarist. Among the rich cast of characters are Siobhan, an African American woman who explains that her unusual name is ``black Irish'' and a cat named Tina Turner. Music and racism are the threads that bind these black women together, providing a double meaning to the book's title. Song lyrics by Bessie Smith, Little Richard and others comment on the emotions and actions of the characters. Hope for a better life forms the backdrop for this human drama, but the dream is in the end deferred once more as racism is found more persistent than hope. The story of these strong and determined women becomes a meditation on loss--loss of life and love, of innocence, of a dream. Only as these characters cling to one another can they overcome the Blues. (Sept.)