Frances Johnson Author:Stacey Levine 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 myster... more »ious 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.« less