Straight Jacket & Tie CL

Television writer Stein's first novel finds humor and pathos in challenging relationships as it explores various forms of alienation in 1980s New York. Bert Rosenbaum is 16 when his older brother Philip suffers the first of many psychotic breakdowns that will test the bonds of their close-knit Bronx family. Philip listens intently to the static between radio stations, decodes secret personal messages from rock albums and intermittently confines himself to bed as he cycles in and out of reality. After graduating from Princeton, Bert works in Manhattan for the sewer department and later pursues an MBA. Philip moves back and forth to California, but Bert finds still more insanity in his building: one neighbor screams dementedly through each night; the children in another apartment have befriended space aliens, who later contact Bert as well. Bert also grapples with his emerging bisexuality and ambiguous relations with friends and co-workers, while Star Trek reruns and Bob Dylan's music provide the cultural background noise. Stein's narrative is lively and his characters generally credible, but a lack of subtlety and overuse of tired pop-culture references dampen both the humor and the insight of this debut. (Feb.)