Fulton County

When a traveling strip-show plays the fairgrounds in a small Ohio town, the show's hardboiled creep of a manager starts an affair with a country-club matron, and longstanding marriages, values and friendships are suddenly threatened by unbridled lust and passion. That's the basis for this overheated potboiler with pretensions as a Peyton Place for the '80s. Goldman, novelist ( Myself as Witness ) and screenwriter ( The Lion in Winter ), peoples this trashy, tumescent roadshow with an 18-year-old runaway virgin stripper, a cuckolded car salesman, a rebellious Ohioan turned New York actress, randy teenagers, a matriarch, a sheriff and assorted townies. While the interactions between the locals and the erotic troupe seem contrived, if nothing else, the story illustrates that oral sex while driving a car is dangerous. Other diversions include lesbian sex between strippers, a beating-cum-incest, public masturbation. In the hands of more sympathetic or believable characters, these unzippings might arouse more interest. Literary Guild alternate; major ad/promo; author tour. (July)