Bad Boy

For all its hip talk and flaunting of high-tech accessories, Goldsmith's (The First Wives Club) cream-puff new read is an old-fashioned tale of love and friendship. In the new SeattleDa town suddenly stinking rich, ""famous for its bad boys, good coffee, and Micro Millionaires""DTracie Higgins is a young reporter for the Seattle Times. Though she has a musician-poet-lout boyfriend, every Sunday Tracie meets platonic chum Jonathan Delano for brunch. Jonathan is a techno-wizard for Micro/Con; he is responsible, dedicated, environmentally correct; good to his mother and stepmothers; and alas, an ugly duckling dweeb who hasn't had sex in a year. Tracie agrees to give him a ""make over"": the clothes, the moves, the haircut, the linesDin short, attitude. ""Women don't want nice guys,"" she says. She should know. In fact, every man in the book (except Jon) is a selfish leech, abusive or indifferent. Every woman seems clueless. But the dialogue is crisp and funny, and though the characters are shallow, they're lively, comradely and comic. The makeover itself is wonderfully funny, especially as poor Jon remains pretty hapless on the pickup. Soon, however, his spiffy clothes, spiked hair, stale lines and casual cruelty turn his love life around. Has the loyal friend, the true lover, the decent, smart, stock-optioned man vanished into chic-ether? Read on. (Jan.)