Kicking Tomorrow

A Canadian TV programmer, book-show host and son of Mordecai Richler, the first-time author here offers the often-hilarious story of Robbie Bookbinder, an 18-year-old ultimate adolescent who, among his many other complaints, resents coming of age in the mid-'70s. English-speaking in Montreal, Robbie drinks and takes all but the hardest drugs, goofs off in his French-language school and loves Ivy, a scrawny, self-absorbed girl hooked on heroin. In some scenes, such as a chaotic, nonsexist September seder (``I was just too busy in the spring,'' Robbie's mother says), the novel is as funny as A Confederacy of Dunces . (To his grandmother, Robbie says, ``I've always wondered, and since I don't speak Hebrew, what exactly coleslaw means.'') When, soon afterward, his parents kick Robbie out, he immediately spends the $1000 they gave him as seed money. Richler stumbles when he tries to follow the rules of conventional novels: the book's happy ending feels forced, and the repeated references to an apocalyptic fire that isn't described until late in the story are a needless tease. Despite its flaws, Richler's larky narrative captures the essence of what Robbie would call the bummer decade. (July)