cover image Still Lives

Still Lives

Scott Sommer. Penguin Books, $7.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-14-011733-2

Thom Frankle, 37, a photographer just fired from the erotic magazine Concupiscence , scrapes along on Manhattan's West Side in a comfy duplex that his ex-girlfriend sues to wrest from him, having meanwhile kidnapped his cherished dog. PW called this a `` witty, twisted, occasionally precious comedy.'' (July)