THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Eden, U.S.A., is the sort of agreeable, homey fictional landscape where reliable, bighearted men live alongside earthy, loyal women—if in sometimes unconventional domestic arrangements. When banker Ed Harris discovers his wife, Anne, in bed with his best friend, town prosecutor Hayden Elkins, Ed, in his typical stoic but droll style, sends Anne home with Hayden to become his "second wife." ("You and your damned peter!" hollers his first, to whom Hayden's still married.) The setup is the center of a rambling, generous excavation of numerous plot lines by the pseudonymous Adams. The likable, eccentric ensemble includes the town's first female preacher, who has a preternatural ability to help people emerge from their troubles; the boyish, strapping manager of the town junkyard whose terror over getting married is driving his longtime girlfriend to distraction; the rookie police trooper bewildered to find himself assigned to this "rusticated nowhere"; and the gentle town drunk who strives to better himself when he catches a glimpse of romantic possibility with his widowed neighbor. The book's pleasing benignity is not marred by its occasional predictability, and Adams's understated humor and generous spirit make this a comforting story of lessons being learned, demons getting laid to rest and good guys winning. Agent, Robert Gottlieb . (May)