cover image Life and Love, Such as They Are

Life and Love, Such as They Are

Anna Shapiro. Simon & Schuster, $20.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-87114-7

``The triangle may be the most stable form in geometry, but in the geometry of human relations it is notoriously precarious,'' writes Shapiro ( The Right Bitch ) in her cynical and cleverly phrased novel. For all its machinations, and despite some insightful takes on lust, deception and discontent, the story covers very little ground as it ruminates over and over on unwinnable situations that lead to despair. In Manhattan, ad designer Ella two-times true-blue but dull Stephen with a married photographer, while neurotic conductor Burton, who's romancing an even more neurotic violinist, proves too kind to abandon his other, narcissistic lover. The unfortunate Stephen, a pianist, is composing a drag version of Othello called Otella --``If you were reading a novel about a woman having an affair and her husband were working on a musical based on Othello , you would groan at the improbability of the coincidence, the bad taste of it,'' the text glibly acknowledges. For sharp characterization and wry, generally acerbic comments on relationships, Shapiro outclasses most of her peers. She employs her talents so deftly, in fact, that readers may be willing to accept her tale's partial open-endedness; it is, after all, an approximation of life. (Jan.)