I Pass Like the Night

Jonathan Ames. Vintage Books USA, $8.95 (167pp) ISBN 978-0-679-72857-3

PW observed that ``sex, isolation and urban squalor are the ingredients of this coolly objective, rather studied first novel'' featuring New Yorker Alex Vine, who uses sex to stave off ennui. ``Despite the no-holds-barred accounts of his liaisons, Vine's lack of introspection distances the reader from the story.'' (Aug.)

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