If You Were Here

House-proud? For Mia and Mac, it's more like house-crazed after they're forced into a hunt for a better, safer, and more perfect home by a crazed landlady and a firebombing graffiti moron. So begins the laugh-out-loud travails of this smart if hapless Chicago couple%E2%80%94she a writer of John Hughes%E2%80%93inspired teenage angst set among the Amish, and he, an impossibly forgiving partner. Lancaster keeps the action fast and funny with a big, rollicking cast%E2%80%94Mia's grandma Babcia, who runs a Polish cleaning lady syndicate; best friends Tracey and Kara, who share Mia's adoration of all things John Hughes; neighbors from hell; and, of course, Hughes himself, who, when not cited, is spoken to by Mia as she struggles through home renovation, career maintenance, and regular ol' relationship stuff. It helps to know the oeuvre of the prolific Breakfast Club genius, but it's innocence that Lancaster is mostly concerned about in this rambunctiously related (it's footnoted) yarn about finding a home and making it your own. (May)