Benjamin Lytal makes these archetypes his own in his fearless, serious and impressive first novel, A Map of Tulsa. The novel is not only about girl, town, youth and book; it is also — as most interesting works of art are — a comment on their mythology. We may still be a young country of unquenchable yearning, and men will always moon for the first girls of their dreams, but it’s harder today to sum up the character of the nation through one’s pining for Sally from Algebra II.
