Snap

This entertaining first novel, set in several American suburbs, introduces a host of characters searching for love. Ruby lavishes affection on his wife Ida. Ida feels smothered by Ruby's attentions and impulsively leaves him to take an unplanned vacation with Big Stan and Nina, a pair of slovenly conceptual artists. Left to fend for himself, Ruby soon falls into the clutches of Linell, the chubby, casserole-baking divorcee next door. Roxy, a self-involved teenager, moves into the house Ruby and Ida have vacated in an attempt to escape her amorous boyfriend, Sammy. Frucht handles her jumble of offbeat characters with sensitivity, wit and a keen sense of life's absurdities. The plot is propelled not so much by the characters' interactions as by their internal dialogues. They dream and daydream; they spy on each other, hatching endless doomed plots in the process. Ultimately, fate takes a hand and they blunder into a happy ending. (February 29)