The Bottle in the Smoke

A. N. Wilson. Penguin Books, $8.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-14-013165-9

In this ever-darkening comedy of manners, narrator Julian Ramsey recalls how, as a naive, egotistical youth, he left his first job to become a writer and/or actor, married socialite Anne Lampitt and published a novel through the influence of a sinister womanizer. According to PW , Julian's misguided adventures are ``witty, poignant, luminously intelligent.'' (Aug.)

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