Til the Real Thing Comes Along

Can an unemployed, 37-year-old Jewish comedy writer who has bad luck with men find happiness with the 29-year-old WASP heir to a paper fortune? Fresh from a broken engagement and several bad dates, R. J. Misner isn't looking for anything but another job in television when she meets David Malcolm at an industry party. Although she gives him the sharp side of her tongue, he's intrigued by her scrappy, funny-lady act, and the difference in their backgrounds doesn't seem to alarm him. But it does bother R. J., daughter of Jewish immigrants and heiress to little but their love, humor and a handful of Yiddish exclamations. When David suddenly stops calling her after a disastrous dinner with his more elegant family, R. J. gets the message. But is it the right one? If there was any real question in our minds, the author's predictable and uninspired handling of these characters would put it to rest immediately. Regrettably, Dart has followed her bestseller, Beaches, with a novel full of flat jokes, in which pathos routinely turns to bathos. (October)