So Long, Princess

Lisa Perlman, a 40-ish divorcee with two daughters, begins her first-person narrative in a fitting spother psychiatrist's office. An unpublished novelist and unemployed art dealer, Lisa clearly has problems. Men come into her life, cause turmoil, then leave. Her daughters continually remind Lisa to act her age, while her mother frets that Lisa hasn't remarried. With broad comic strokes, Brooker, herself an artist, paints a funny and poignant picture of two years in her hyper, pill-popping heroine's life. The story focuses on Lisa's efforts to write the action novel that her potential publisher wants and her on-and-off affair with a neurotic professor. Occasionally, Lisa's endless complaints, invariably played for laughs, come close to being as burdensome for the reader as they are for Lisa. A little cat-box and gynecological humor goes a long way. Despite this, Brooker's first novel succeeds as fast-paced, insightful entertainment. (September 28)