Drowning in Fire (Sun Tracks)
Womack's sensual first novel is the coming-of-age story of Josh  Henneha, a Muskogee Creek Indian growing up in Oklahoma in the  1970s. Studious, thin, and effeminate, Josh is ridiculed by the  other boys in his small town except the athletic and popular  Jimmy Alexander, who includes the outcast in basketball games  and swimming in the nearby lake. Josh yearns for Jimmy's  friendship and is attracted to the basketball player's maturing  body. He fantasizes that he has secret powers of swimming  underwater and flying through the air that will bring them  closer together. Given Josh's strict upbringing, his sexual  attraction to another boy confuses him. But his Creek heritage,  as transmitted by his grandfather and great-aunt's tales,  sanctions being different. When Jimmy actually introduces Josh  to sex, it repels him. But a chance meeting 20 years later  between the two former friends eventually develops into a loving  relationship. Womack (Native American studies, Univ. of  Lethbridge, Alberta; Red on Red: Native American Literary  Separatism) has fashioned a satisfying and well-written novel.  Recommended for most public library collections. Joseph M. Egan,  Enoch Pratt Free Lib., BaltimoreCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.