The title of Rudolfo Anaya's new novel [Tortuga] refers, first, to the "magic mountain" (with a nod here to Thomas Mann) that towers over the hospital for paralytic children, the setting for this Bildungsroman; and second, to the nickname of the hero, whose upper torso through half the novel is encased in the hard cast of the "turtle." It also provides the novel with its central metaphor: the movement from dependence to autonomy, and all that entails.

Anaya builds his story with recurring patterns of imagery: water, sun, fire; desert, mountain, sky; the cycle of seasons. The imagery is developed in complex and unexpected ways. For example, early on the water is associated with a maternal healing power; but gradually the metaphor deepens, presents the more ominous possibility of a suffocating reliance. The resolution of this conflict is certainly one of the novel's high points, as the character...