The Festival of Earthly Delights

Dojny's debut novel comprises a series of profuse travelogue letters sent to Hap (a stand-in for novelist John Wray, apparently a friend of Dojny's), an intimate of the book's narrator, Boyd Darrow, who, along with his girlfriend, Ulla, have set out to rebuild their lives in the fictional Southeast Asian nation of Puchai%E2%80%94an exotic locale characterized by off-kilter expats, ubiquitous sacred turtles, and technologically innovative sex parlors. There, Boyd tries teaching an ESL course while harboring amorous feelings for a local girl nicknamed Shiney, and Ulla may or may not be having an affair of her own. Fully inhabiting a kind of Grand Master Slacker aesthetic, Dojny serves up a highly episodic, remedial story line, with plenty of (attempts at) comic moments scattered throughout, from tired potty humor to a confrontation with local teens from a disenfranchised caste. Dojny might be aiming at some insights into the well-trod Westerner in the East trope, but his delivery wearies more than it enlightens. Illus. (June)