Many Things Have Happened Since He Died

If Holly Golightly had stayed in the South, she might have composed this fictional memoir by a young battered wife who believes she can sell her story for enough money to reverse the downward spiral of her life. The unnamed heroine has dropped out of college after the death of her father and married Malone, a violent, druggie dental student. The plot percolates rather than develops; the heroine, for example, explains that she would murder someone by driving a nail into his ear; ``I would never use a gun or knife. I am against violence.'' Decisions about what to wear are as important as whether she will kill herself. Should she lure her husband back to a perfect Christian marriage or change all the locks? Nevertheless, most of this appealing character's effort to record her life in order to retrieve its lost potential is readable and sadly convincing. (Apr.)