The Tuesday Erotica Club

This debut novel by playwright and standup comic Kovetz promises more than it delivers in almost every sense, starting with the "erotica" of the title. The club in question comprises four bored women working in a law firm who meet over lunch to share naughty bits from their own writing—barely erotic, poorly written passages that often devolve into sub–Sex and the City patter. The men are one-dimensional foils (the abuser, the wimp, the sexually confused, etc.); the women are defined primarily by their opposition to each other: Lux is a dim working-class secretary while Brooke is an artist and former debutante, paralegal Aimee is pregnant and abandoned while lawyer Margot is menopausal and defiantly single. They never click as a group, and perhaps they aren't supposed to; as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that this is Lux's story. Strong and sympathetic, she deserves a novel all to herself. (Apr.)