BUILT IN A DAY

Andrew, the antihero of this blackly humorous novel, is still in college in his 30s, has a job as a youth counselor that involves nothing more than hanging out with teens all day and is skilled at manipulating women. When his new wife dies, leaving him in charge of her teenaged sons and 16-year-old foster daughter, he finally has adult responsibility thrust upon him. He responds to his new role by taking his sexually precocious female charge to bed and making starry-eyed plans to marry her while also thinking about seducing her social worker. First-time novelist Rinehart, author of the short story collection Kick in the Head, makes this a case study in narcissism, arrested adolescence and contemporary male slackerdom. Writing in sharp first-person prose, he captures the verbal blend of self-deprecation and self-indulgence with which Andrew tries to dodge any blame for his actions. But Rinehart may be a little too beguiled by his protagonist. The world is improbably wowed by Andrew's charisma (he manages, for example, to convince an Iowa Democratic caucus to nominate him for president) and strangely tolerant of his sexual predations (which, conveniently, leave the foster daughter emotionally unscathed); the other characters, especially the women, are fondly indulgent and devoted to the project of ushering Andrew into a belated manhood. Rinehart's writing is entertaining and insightful, but readers may wish that he didn't let Andrew off so easy. (Aug.)