O Beautiful

A young Manhattan set designer, Martin has arranged his life like his scene drops: it is well-ordered and precise. His apartment demonstrates a carefully nurtured taste for the delicate and refined; the decor mirrors Martin's imagined physical delicacy, a condition encouraged by his mother during his childhood. When Matt, who has just been made homeless by a girlfriend, comes into Martin's life, his simple and quiet existence is threatened. Matt shares Martin's food, money, bed and affection but not his sexuality (Martin is gay, Matt is straight). Even though Martin's and his friend Stella's advice to each other is ``only disconnect'' when faced with an untenable person or situation, Martin wants nothing more than to connect with Matt. But the real connections are to be found with Stella; with Delia, the child star of a play he's involved in; with Delia's mother, Maria; and with Stefan, Delia's newborn brother, whose infant wholeness grounds and revives Martin and brings him back from his drifting, endless search for love and truth. Though Martin is at times too frustratingly obtuse, Green, in his first novel, has rendered a character recognizable in his yearning to belong. (May)