Green Bananas

This love story about Sylvan, a Santa Cruz college senior majoring in Earth Sciences, and Phyllis, an ``older'' (27-year-old) lesbian who runs the day-care center where Sylvan works, is sometimes clever but generally too sophomoric to appeal to readers over 30. Phyllis wants a baby by artificial insemination; Sylvan wants sex. Along with some vividly goofy scenes between the mismatched pair, and between Sylvan and his small charges, is an antic convergance of beauty contestants, feminist protesters, stoned college kids, street crazies and a black street gang. Such highlights are offset by patches of stilted dialogue (`` `Boys! Alight and rest your saddles,' '' says Sylvan's mother), silly subplots involving both parental and canine mating and secondary characters who are sketched rather than drawn. So this first novel is rather like its title, promising but not yet delivering a ripe product. (May)