EDUARDO AQUIFER AND THE GREAT TANNING INCIDENT

Hunt's wobbly second novel offers an unconventional spin on the usual coming-of-age formula. An odd, inquisitive young Mexican writer from Austin, Tex., Eduardo Aquifer, explores his desire to write through a series of adventures and encounters with a bizarre cast of characters. After drifting around, sleeping at local rest stops and under highway overpasses, Aquifer is hired as gardener at an Austin home called "The House Above the World," where he also lives. Hunt then introduces his panoply of weird secondary characters, including a pseudo–Greek chorus called the Black Riders; a shrink named Dr. Reilly, who occasionally informs Aquifer's navel-gazing with snippets from Hamlet ; and Aquifer's Indian friend, Waylon. As Aquifer wanders around Austin in a series of disconnected scenes, he pursues a romance with a woman he dubs the "uber girl," a young, politically active beauty who sports a different hair color in each scene. Aquifer's other adventures include working a ranch with some Mexican migrants, dancing with Waylon and haphazard road trips to Fort Worth, Tex., and Europe. Hunt makes little effort to connect the dots into anything resembling a genuine plot, although the unconventional storytelling and Aquifer's self-exploration and experiments with writing occasionally lead to some whimsical, funny moments. But the lackadaisical, indulgent styling grows tiresome, the low point coming after Aquifer's lame adventure with a pizza delivery guy, which Hunt follows in Gertrude Stein fashion by filling consecutive pages with the single sentence: "I sat in my room." Hunt shows flashes of comic talent with his oddball scenes and characters, but incoherence trumps innovation in this uneven effort. (Jan. 20)