GOING DOWN MEMORY LANE is an apt title for author Laura Pfalz's story of three young women, who, one after another, relate the summer of 1983 in flashbacks from the book's 1998 setting.

   Theresa Jefferson Manzoni and her friends, Beth Williams and Donna Morrison, look back at the busy and auspicious summer of their twelfth year. People and events spiraled together for the pre-teens in life-shaping and life-changing ways.

   Theresa, the middle child of eight, has always felt singled out by her mother-- in a very non-motherly manner. Beth's father was killed when she was five, and although she and her mother have since built a comfortable life, there is something missing for the young lady. Even Donna, who seemingly lives a charmed life with a physician for a father and an attorney for a mother, has issues with which to deal.

   Enter two separate set of brothers; one set bent on destruction and control, the other set more in the free spirit mode. The first set of brothers interact with the three girls in a negative and violent way; the second set of brothers come to the rescue in more ways than one.

   There are many things going on in this book at one time, keeping the reader's attention and making the story a true page-turner. And although the writing lacks the subtlety of experience, there is something to be said for the raw way in which the story is written. Over-the-top characterizations and stilted dialogue may put off the purist reader, but if one is able to look beyond these, there is an interesting storyline beneath.