Something Blue

Hood's ( Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine ) breezy and absorbing fourth novel takes on a perennially popular subject, the friendships of moderately struggling young women in New York City. Lucy's career as an illustrator of children's books is on the verge of coming together; she's only unhappy that her boyfriend, a dancer just about ready to throw in the towel, is not equally successful. By contrast, Lucy's inveterately restless chum Julia (who moves from sublet to sublet, pretends to hail from Milan--not Brooklyn--and sleeps only with oddballs and foreigners) falls unexpectedly in love with one man and one apartment. And Lucy's old roommate Katherine, who has left her intended at the altar in Connecticut but can't seem to shed her prim, cookie-baking persona, arrives in the city as Lucy's somewhat unwelcome houseguest, trailing her unhappy past as a sorority girl. Over the course of a year, the three have affairs and endure breakups, agonize about the direction of their lives, and both doubt and reaffirm their sometimes difficult three-way camaraderie. Anchored in the contemporary by references to brand names, restaurants and TV shows, Something Blue offers a faithful and enjoyable group portrait that is at the same time facile, as Hood ties up all loose ends in the effort to launch her heroines with conventional brio. (Jan.)