Don Juan in the Village

In these 14 tales of lesbian relationships, journalist and novelist ( Real Estate ) DeLynn brings a distinctive, eloquent and discerning voice--by turns diffident, bold, self-mocking, biting--to the universal quandaries of love. The stories make the rounds of bars in Morocco, Ibiza, Puerto Rico or Greenwich Village, affording a kind of cultural/erotic tour of women in different societies. Bars themselves acquire significance as places of self-knowledge and a necessary sadness, where one might learn ``magic words.'' Funny and wry, ``Fame'' tells how the narrator, a writer, lures a famed film actress back to her pad and seduces her, meanwhile worrying about how the bathroom looks and, in her nervous exhilaration, feeling like Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Donald Trump. ``Night Diving'' contrasts the mystique and dangers of scuba diving with an unsatisfactory seduction on a Caribbean holiday. ``The Duchess of L.A.'' is a spoof of the S/M scene. Sexual descriptions are explicit, the literary quality is high. (Oct.)