Bye-Bye

""One of the best experiences I've ever had was waking up from an abortion,"" says Rose, the protagonist of this uneven debut novel by poet (Without Asking) Ransom. That's only one of many attention-grabbing statements. We discover quite early that Rose Ann Waldin is an alias that she assumed after divorcing her detached, intellectually overbearing husband. Packed with sex scenes ranging from the odd to the sadomasochistic, the narrative chronicles the life that Rose creates for herself in the sexual underground as she floats among male and female lovers, sampling exotic sexual experiences while remaining emotionally distant. At first, the sex scenes, handled unapologetically and without coyness, are vivid and fresh. But as they fail to build to a meaningful conclusion, they lose power and slip, instead, into a repeated cycle of handcuffs and leather straps. Aside from Rose's sexual antics, the narrative is thin. Rose's past is handled only in broad strokes (a domineering mother is recalled occasionally), and there is little plot development. Rose's sexual liberation, even in its less attractive moments, is an interesting theme, but here the desire to shock seems to have overcome the impetus to fully explore Rose's character. (May) FYI: Bye-Bye won the New York University Press Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Bobst Award for Emerging Writers.