An Invisible Sign of My Own (Aimee Bender)

I really liked "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake," so I decided to read something else by Bender. This book was her first, and it didn't work as well for me. Instead of the deeply moving magical realism of Lemon Cake, I found it irritating and unconvincing. The protagonist is a 19-year-old girl whose father is ill with something undiagnosed and she deals with it in ways that are unlikely and unlikable. She is hired at the local school to teach math to elementary school children on the sole basis that the head of the school saw her once in the park doing long division for fun. Her class is a mess, especially the part where she brings in an actual ax and mounts it on the wall of the classroom where a determined child can climb up and reach it. Her fear of sex is overcome by a tender, persistent man who must see something in her I don't. There's an odd neighbor who disappears, leaving his hardware store open for anyone to walk in and take what they want, with no explanation. He's the one who wears signs (numbers indicating his mood at the moment), and she wants a similar, invisible sign, but there is no explanation for this either. I finished it, because it's a short book, but I didn't like it.