Good Men

In Putnam's crypts-memoir of a Holden Caulfield manqud, his Andover ne'er-do-well, Gordon Bancroft, feels goaded to fail by father and fatherfigures alike. But when this troubled teen meets townie Janet McBride, a tartan-plaid-wearing Vargas girl with the sexual appetites of Ana:fs Nin, the nobody-knows-me style turns into pubescent Penthouse Forum, and the lover in penny loafers suddenly becomes an honor-roll grind. Though Putnam seems to draw heavily on his own experiences (readers are told of his career as a opera soloist, and of his offspring: a child and grandchild, both age five), his lifestyle cannot add retroactive luster to that of his unlikably smug protagonist. Gordon Bancroft, at his best, is a medium for the memoir as wet dream, and at his worst is an oddly comfortable voice floating between idealized recollections and indulgent self-loathing. My experience and temperament compel me to explore the dark side, Putnam explains in a publisher's note, where outeasts must suffer to survive and self-hatred masks the truth about their lives. For an Andover boy, this involves a late growth spurt, a lot of detention periods, an overbearing dad and bad, presumably tragic, miscommunications with the busty, lusty love of his life. Putnam previously wrote about Gordon Bancroft in By the Wayside. (Oct.)