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Welcome to teenage love in the heartland with this stunning debut by Michael J. White.

“Weeping Underwater Looks a Lot Like Laughter” may be a mouthful of a title, but it’s a gorgeous piece of taught prose, rich in humor and grief.

The story opens with teenage George Flynn and his family moving to Des Moines from Davenport, Iowa, and a murder in the same hotel they are in. While George should have the murder take place, he doesn’t and thus begins his almost dream-like entrance into Des Moines. George is ambivalent about school until he meets Emily Schell after a school play and falls quickly in love with her.

As George tries to win her – growing more and more desperate to relieve his teenage angst – he meets her younger sister, Katie, who suffers from an early onset of MS. Katie’s acceptance of George helps Emily warm to him.

But when tragedy strikes, the fragile, happy world that George has built with the Schell sisters may be lost forever unless the gulf between George and Emily can be bridged somehow.

White’s debut novel reads like earlier John Irving (the 158-lb Marriage-era) – complete with Irving’s use of high school wrestling. Though it smacks of Irving, White’s voice is all his own.

Sometimes it’s confusing what era the novel is set in – feeling like it flips between the mid-90s and modern day – but whichever it is, George is an entrancing teenage narrator. His musings are so deeply seared with comedy and the darkness that’s on the fringes for so many teens. He is a perfect narrator, yet with such flawed humanity that readers can’t help but hope to see him triumph.

White’s pitch-perfect debut will make him an author to watch for in the coming years.

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