Fiction Chronicle.

SOMETIMES WE'RE ALWAYS REAL SAME-SAME By Mattox Roesch. Unbridled, paper, $15.95. When Roesch's thoughtful first novel opens, Cesar Stone, a 17-year-old Los Angeles gang member whose brother is serving life for murder, is living alone with his financially struggling mother. Determined to make a better life, she moves the two of them back to her hometown -- Unalakleet, Alaska, a small fishing village where much of her quirky and eccentric family still lives. (Imagine the protagonist discovering he has a relative named ''Aunty Striptease.'') But the most colorful family member is Go-boy, a cousin a few years older and several inches taller than Cesar, whose ''black hair stood on end, messy, like a cloud of smoke.'' Largehearted and enchanted by life's mysteries, Go endeavors to make Cesar feel at home, showing him around and getting him a job. Nevertheless, Cesar, homesick, plans his escape -- until he meets Go-boy's beautiful stepsister. But when Go's enchanted ways darken into something more dangerous, it is Cesar who must help his cousin. Particularly in the middle stretch it feels as though Roesch, who started his career as a story writer, is still learning how to work the stick shift on a long-distance trip, lingering too long in second gear. But he deftly portrays Unalakleet, where ''every yard is littered with skeletons of four-wheelers and snow machines and fishing boats,'' and once he gets the hang of it, he delivers the narrative soundly to its climactic destination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]