Popular belief says we can't go home again, but what happens when we have to?

Jonathan Tropper's central character, Joe Goffman, faces this predicament when he returns to Bush Falls after his father suffers a stroke. The problem isn't simply that Joe has to return home after a 17-year absence; it's that he wrote a savagely satirical novel about his youth in Bush Falls that, coupled with a successful movie, made him a wealthy New Yorker.

Joe's novel inflamed the residents, however, and he quickly learns that they possess long memories when he faces overt hostility from a wide spectrum of the citizenry.

Since few people ever leave Bush Falls, Joe discovers that the town's dynamics are simply a replay of high school, but with older players who now wield more power.

Joe flashes back to the past when Wayne, his best friend from high school, appears to welcome Joe back. Now dying from AIDS, Wayne's presence triggers memories of the summer when Joe discovered that his star athlete friend and a new boy in town are both gay.

Tropper propels his story forward with these flashbacks to establish the background for Joe's earlier departure from town and explains his present discomfort. Unfortunately, the power of the flashbacks outshines the events of the present.

It's also sadly apparent that the 34-year-old Joe has never resolved the issues of high school as he becomes involved in a series of sophomoric episodes. Often his 18-year-old nephew, with whom he hangs out, is the more mature of the two.

Tropper successfully evokes the insularity of small towns and the dominant role the local basketball coach plays with all "his boys," whether they be 16 or 60.

However, the book needs some judicious editing to eliminate the plot-impeding wordiness and such labored phrases as "her teeth gleaming white, the beneficiaries of constant buffing from those phenomenal lips."

By novel's end, we realize that it's Wayne rather than Joe who has engaged our interest and sympathy, and Joe's progression into maturity elicits only a ho-hum response.

Joan Hinkemeyer is a Denver librarian and freelance writer.