Five Days Apart

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it's a split between close male friends in their 20s. In Binchy's astutely observed American debut, the pair in question is David and Alex, Dubliners whose long bond is tested by romantic rivalry and the strains of encroaching adult responsibilities. At a college party, the sight of Camille sends the introverted David to seek help from his charming, more socially adept pal. The contrast between the two men is perceptively drawn by Binchy, a nephew of Maeve, who proves himself a lucid chronicler of the buddy relationship, which starts to fall apart when Alex moves in on Camille himself. Meanwhile, David scores a good job in an established bank while Alex flounders at school and seems unable to make the transition to grownup. David, now more confident and assertive, acts on his attraction to Camille, and the men's friendship's bittersweet, evocatively described dissolution completes a phase of David's life in a way neither the protagonist nor the reader might have expected at the novel's start. (July)