Ian Shoales' Perfect World

Kessler's (I Gotta Go!) snarling narrator Ian Shoales has wickedly funny things to say about Garbage Pail Kids bubble-gum cards and television-blooper shows, and astute observations on male-female relationships suggest a keen insight into human behavior. But Shoales is on shakier ground with his attacks on corporate life and East-West relations, topics that, unfortunately, make up the lion's share of this book. Shoales is a nasty, perennially broke and sponging wiseass who, at the outset of this social satire's muddled plot, comes into possession of nine billion dollars and a sort of cosmic remote-control device called a ``Destiny Commander.'' He spends most of the rest of the book fleeing various lethal bad guys out to relieve him of his cash, his device or both. The final confrontation takes place in Moscow, N.D., a slice of totalitarian life in America's heartland ``conceptualized by a special team of Western theme park designers and Eastern circus impresarios.'' Author tour. (July)