SMALL TOWN

The title city is New York. Shortly after 9/11. An otherwise miscellaneous group of New Yorkers acquires two characters in common--a kinky and promiscuous gallery owner and an elusive maniac who is avenging the Twin Towers tragedy by murdering assorted Manhattanites. The book features graphic sex and gruesome mayhem, witty humor, vividly drawn (albeit cardboard) characters, and numerous digressive musings. George Guidall does his wonted fine job with this fare. He keeps the narrative enthralling even where the author flags. While many narrators sound embarrassed doing detailed passages of erotic encounters, especially when, as here, they're described in Anglo-Saxonisms, Guidall serves them up without a wink. If, however, they're supposed to be arousing, our narrator has not made them so. He errs further in the postcoital love scenes between the perverse lady and the writer she loves, which sound trite. But they're written that way. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]