The Ballad of Maria Tambini

PERSONALITY By Andrew O'Hagan Harcourt. 311 pp. $25 The central character in this strange, and strangely compelling, novel is a singer named Maria Tambini. She comes from the town of Rothesay on the Scottish island of Bute -- her own family is Scots- Italian -- but she will remind American readers of Karen Carpenter, the immensely gifted, appealing pop singer who could not control her anorexia nervosa and eventually died of it, still in her youth and loved by millions of people who cherished her bell-like voice and her fresh good looks. Maria Tambini was born to sing. This is self-evident by t...