The Beginners

by Rebecca Wolff

The Globe’s book page loved this coming-of-age story, in which two strangers come to town and change everything. In this case, the town is a Western Massachusetts hamlet where the past is not deeply buried. The residents, however, seem to know as much as we do about Peter Straub and Stephen King and those Fried Green Tomatoes, and the tale veers in directions that are just about as interesting as can be, given that this is a story of the sexual awakening of a girl who lacks desire and who has no particular interest in waking.