cover image LOVE AND OTHER RECREATIONAL SPORTS

LOVE AND OTHER RECREATIONAL SPORTS

John Dearie, . . Viking, $23.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-670-03219-8

Dearie's debut novel is a contemporary romance with a twist: it's about a man looking for love. Jack Lafferty is a handsome but shy Wall Street banker who is also writing a novel. Seared by an unfaithful fiancée, Jack vows to remain celibate. Then, of course, Ms. Right appears, in the form of Sarah Mitchell, a corporate lawyer who is also an amateur guitarist and photographer. Ignoring the advice of his friends, Jack uses every excuse to avoid pursuing her. As he shuffles through the grim New York singles scene and has a run-in with his ex-fiancée, Jack realizes that Sarah is the one—but alas, he may have waited too long. Set in glamorous old-school Manhattan locales—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, West Village apartments and Upper West Side cafes—the novel covers the usual bases, including a romantic moonlit ending and fawning descriptions of stylish women ("she was tall and sleek, with rich chocolate-brown hair parted boyishly on the side... looking positively smashing in her cool, slim black evening dress and pearls"). This isn't the most effervescent entry in the genre. Jack is short on sense of humor, and he has a priggish streak, condescendingly reminding a lovelorn female colleague that "men don't marry women they think are easy." The narration and dialogue can be stiff ("Strange how one's thinking can be determined by a few assumptions," Jack muses at a cocktail party. "We're all prone to that," Sarah replies). Readers won't be swept away, though if they pick up the book for its novel perspective, they'll likely keep reading to the end. Agent, Alice Martell. (June 30)