Fool in Love: One Man's Search for Romance . . . or Something Like It

L.A. pop culture journalist Ivory's uneven gathering of 30-odd musings and reminiscences charts his""Search"" for his one true love (""Everyone writes about love, but the Search gets no love""). Structurally speaking, the collection reads like a running log of his romantic feats and failures interrupted by a section containing poignant essays about his childhood. This middle segment,""For Better or Worse: The Blueprint,"" shows Ivory at his smartest and most sympathetic. ""Sleigh Ride, First Class,"" which touches on racial tensions in mid-century Chicago, and ""Model Behavior,"" which recalls a grade school lesson about the importance of giving, are especially moving. The vivid writing here makes it tougher to swallow the cliches Ivory sometimes employs when writing about women and romance in the first and third parts of the book (""The Laws of Love"" and""In the Beginning, There was Awkward""). The women are rarely less than stunning and very much interested in him, but there are plenty of obstacles to romance--a domineering cat, a vehement love for God--which he describes in tones that range from smug to glib to yearning. Some of his chronicles seem improbable (he describes, for example, reluctantly participating in some back-alley S&M; receiving unnecessary CPR while on a blind date; and pinch-hitting for a stripper known as the Black Stallion in an Australian bar), but sometimes that's charming. Ivory may bemoan his single status, but he takes an interest in his Search and pride in his successes; his final piece, ""My Secret Valentine,"" is a heartfelt ode... to himself.