cover image Come Together

Come Together

Emlyn Rees, Josie Lloyd. Villard Books, $21.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-375-50232-3

Collaborating as alternating male and female voices, Rees (The Book of Dead Authors) and Lloyd (It Could Be You) draw a slacker-love roadmap that allows readers of each gender to see what the other really thinks. Currently engaged to marry in real life, the writing couple have created West London Bridget Jones-wannabes Jack Rossiter and Amy Crosbie, who rival their precursor in list making and neurotic fretting, if not in charm: each has a sardonic, unapologetic edge that makes them less endearing than Bridget. At 25, chronic office temp Amy hasn't had sex for months. Struggling artist Jack, 27, sees his single life as ""a state of siege"" (his rule of thumb: don't give up complete no-strings-attached sexual freedom until your ""Uberbabe"" comes along). The two meet, talk all night, immediately go off to obsess about each other. Amy's judgment of Jack by ""vital statistics"" makes us wonder about the depth of the mutual attraction, but as one watches them endure every possible relationship pratfall and misunderstanding, the emotional ante rises for a happy-ever-after. Their biggest blowup is the most interesting, if only for its current-events echoes: does Jack's ""accidental fellatio"" count as infidelity? Gen-Xers will find all of their culture and conflict in these pages--honesty, jealousy, vacations from hell, condoms. Anyone over 35, however, will be as dismayed as they are entertained by the jadedness and naivete of the characters' concerns. Agents, Vivienne Shuster and Jonny Geller. Rights sold in Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Greece; film rights to Working Title Films; author tour. (Apr.)