How to Break Bad News

Molloy’s debut stages a bittersweet love story against the backdrop of television news, and while it builds into a diatribe against the dumbing down of news, the book itself is about as sophisticated as a goofy prime-time sitcom. Scott Thomas, a 29-year-old field producer at an unnamed network, is recovering from a breakup when he’s sent on an undercover assignment to a fast-food restaurant called Gringo’s Southwestern Mexican Grille. Much of the novel is wasted on the tedium of uncovering the story, whether it’s debating the linguistics of sanitation manuals with his fast-food boss or having sex with his boss from the network. Scott is not an easy character to spend time with; his do-goodery is incredibly annoying (as when he argues with a rental car agency employee for not giving him a Prius), and his transformation late in the story comes across as temporary and false. Many of the plot points that bring about the novel’s close are as implausible as they are confusing. (Nov.)