ORANGE LAUGHTER

The tragic collision of two strong personalities -- an African-American writer living in abandoned Manhattan subway tunnels and the leader of a civil-rights-era Underground Railroad -- makes for a breakneck literary page-turner. Once the editor of a downtown-New York arts magazine, 43-year-old Tony is now homeless and haunted by monstrous, schizophrenic visions of Agatha, the woman who raised him. British novelist Ross masterfully alternates Tony's manic unpunctuated ramblings with a slower-paced but equally suspenseful tale of his coming-of-age in race-torn 1960s North Carolina. Despite too many surprise final twists, this bristling story of love, escape, and betrayal has a powerful emotional impact. B+