To My Ex-Husband

Designed as a series of letters that a woman writes but never sends to her ex-husband, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Dundon's debut novel is initially intriguing but ultimately wearisome. Narrator Emily Moore introduces herself in a letter dated August 24, 1989. She's just been remarried and is bidding a bittersweet farewell to Nick, the man she separated from in September 1984 (and eventually divorced). ``It wasn't that long ago,'' she writes, ``that I couldn't imagine living with anyone but you, couldn't imagine establishing that kind of intimacy all over again.'' Following a litany of such greeting-card observations, Emily rereads her entire cache of post-separation jottings. At first she attributes her marital breakup to a simple divergence of interests, then learns that Nick had been having an affair. The epistles potently, if repetitiously, communicate Emily's reactions to Nick's new lovers, her own struggles to begin dating again and an abortion. Unfortunately, the cumulative effect here is of reading back-to-back advice columns--though some may be relevant and therapeutic, they're lethal in massive doses. (Apr.)