cover image Almost Like Being There

Almost Like Being There

Tom Leopold. Dutton Books, $15.95 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-525-24632-9

Leopold's lively first novel is the story of one week in the life of New York actor Sandy Bayard, whose former girlfriend Mary has killed herself. Mary had left Sandy to go back to her old boyfriend, Ansil, who calls Sandy two days after the funeral to tell him the bad news. The two meet at a bar and get quite drunk. The next day, Sandy (hung over, as well as very upset) receives a one-sentence letter from Mary``It's nothing you've done, but it feels like it is''and he goes slightly nuts. Searching for some way to explain her suicide, he visits Boston to look for Mary's grave. While there, he talks to her scary father and goes to dinner with her brother's girlfriendwhose plans to seduce him are soured by his allergic reaction to her crazed, six-ounce dog. Finding no answers in Boston, Sandy returns to New York and thinks maybe he's okay, but he's not, and the way he deals with the fact that he's still living, while someone he loves isn't is what this vivid, well-written and amazingly (considering the subject matter) funny book is about. Highly recommended. (June)