Frances Johnson doesn't want to attend the town dance. But there is
pressure.
The people of Munson, her small Florida town, make their
needs known: Ray, her boyfriend who is "overfocused on world history";
Mal, the horsey, earnest, fry cook at Mal's Pico Diner, who offers her
his cabin;
Palmer, the town doctor who can find no cure for the
mysterious scar Frances bears; her mother, speaking to her through
"the mechanical screeching" of Munson's patched telephone lines.
Nearby, a volcano the townspeople call "Sharla" spews lava and stones,
lighting the night sky with its portentous burning. At once measured
and suspenseful, Frances Johnson is a comedy of manners in the
tradition of Jane Bowles.
