The Lonely Hearts Club

The loneliness of the modern urban orbit receives strange treatment in this hilarious, insightful and often raunchy novel by a Barcelona resident. At 40, Frankie (Antonio, really, but he looks like Frank Sinatra) has a drab existence: his days are aimless and at night he's a porter in a seedy Barcelona hotel. Since his wife left, women have become ``remote and unattainable,'' so he joins a lonely hearts correspondence club, thereby opening a veritable Pandora's box of Barcelona eccentrics. First there's Hortensia Garcia, a middle-aged widow who invites Frankie for Sunday dinner. It's a subdued affair until her son arrives: a teenage thug who robs Frankie at razor point. Frankie also hears from a kindhearted transvestite, a tough-talking ex-con in need of a friend, and other unsuitable correspondents. Even ``normal'' life begins to take odd turns, as when his 83-year-old boss, ``the Lizard,'' badgers Frankie into showing him the city's nightlife and then drops dead on a nightclub dance floor. From marriage proposal to death threat, Nunez shrewdly probes despair and isolation through brash, fast-paced comedy. (June)