Jetlag

Public-relations jargon and flat prose generally make this first novel about the lives of globe-trotting reporters and business execs as exciting as a company boardroom meeting. The story revolves around Laurie, a footloose Australian journalist for a Singapore business magazine who becomes emotionally involved with a top computer salesman and is drawn into his circle of business colleagues. Later, Laurie accepts a job at his rapidly growing computer company, Orion Management Systems, and trails him from the office to his rented flat, trying to get the evasive salesman to commit to her. In the end, though, readers don't much care about the pair's plight or those of the corporate types they work for, because all are equally two-dimensional. Nayman ignores the emotional possibilities of characters this world destroys-Laurie's friend Susan, for instance, a former reporter who is institutionalized. Nor does she devote much attention to the motivation of Laurie herself, who jokes a lot and says things such as ``Marketing strategy. Recommendations therein. Approval necessary. Discussion required.'' Most of this largely superficial book reads this way. (May)