Take Me to the Underground

Hansen's first novel is populated by tiresome characters fascinated by their own existence. Little about the lesbian love affair recounted here is memorable or poignant. As the book opens, Dorey still loves Alexandra but can no longer stomach her feverish discussions about ``how our damned souls understand each other,'' and has moved in with a woman who offers simpler, more reliable companionship. Alexandra torments herself by reviewing the ``Perfect Moments'' of their relationship, episodes she says are recalled; Dorey claims Alexandra has embroidered them. Thus begins a destructive pattern in which the women alternately lure and reject each other, their passion exceeded only by their ambivalence. Meanwhile, each is pursued by her own demons: Alexandra is convinced that a worm is eating at her brain; Dorey, fearful of harming others, injures herself, first by walking into a glass wall and then by grasping a burning log. By the end, even Alexandra is relieved to be free of her obsessions--and so is the reader. (Apr.)