Sportsman's Paradise

Don't expect plot development in Lemann's meandering sequel to Lives of the Saints ; this essayistic novel requires the reader to adjust to its digressive flow and quirky, tragicomic narrator. As in that first novel, Lemann depicts Louisiana's Collier clan, this time via contemplative New York City columnist Storey Collier, who spends weekends in lush, plantation-esque Orient Point, Long Island. Storey's yearning for her home state causes her to regard her eccentric weekend companions with tenderness and indulgence, seeing in them classic examples of Southern misanthropy, hedonism and gentility. She waxes nostalgic over Manhattan's seedy Times Square because it recalls her beloved New Orleans; she takes comfort in baseball because sports bring her closer to old flame and fellow journalist Hobby Fox; she tirelessly reiterates favorite adjectives for her ``crashingly handsome'' but quite insane editor-in-chief, her cousin's unnaturally ``courtly'' three-year-old son, and NYC's ``crazy wino lunatics.'' Though frequently hilarious or (as Storey often says) ``poignant,'' Lemann's style requires patience. There is little to hold the reader, although a vague climax and denouement occur in the final pages, gently resolving Storey and Hobby's relationship. (May)