Ten Thousand Years in the Suburbs

Twice weekly for 10 years, Jack Zimmerman has penned a bittersweet life-in-the-burbs column called ``Loose Change'' for the Elmhurst, Ill., Press. Fans of Dave Barry will recognize the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist's tone in this compilation of columns that cast a caustic glance at family life, career struggles and personal growth. While Zimmerman, a man for whom ``success is owning all new underwear,'' shares Barry's charming wit and celebration of the mundane, he's not quite as likable. Here is a man who worries not about whether the glass is half empty or half full but ``about washing it when those idiots are done with their stupid philosophical discussions.'' His comparisons of Orlando to ``a large, moist boil in central Florida'' and rap artists' gestures as ``the Hunchback of Notre Dame dialing a telephone'' produce laughs, but after a while Zimmerman's middle-age whining grows tiresome. He extols old movie theaters, marching bands and other things of the past, while vacillating between self-deprecation and self-congratulation. Lost in the conversion from newspaper columns to chapter-book format are spontaneity and continuity, while a tendency to recycle jokes becomes apparent. There are many far less competent writers than Zimmerman, and Elmhurst is fortunate to have ``Loose Change,'' but that's about all this collection adds up to. (July)