Bachelors' Bride

In the overheated art world of Greenwich Village East, SoHo, the voguish Hamptons, brightened by such figures as Stella, Johns, Rauschenberg and the ubiquitous Warholin short, the '60s scene when everything seemed ready to explodeMel Dworkin is the latest celebrity. He is as unpleasant a character as he is a talented painter; competitive, of dubious morals, an unconscionable manipulator of people. Observing him steadily is the narrator Jason Phillips, an art historian and critic and himself a figure in the scene he portrays. Jason is enamored of both the gallery-owner who is Dworkin's dealer and her male assistant, a character equally well-known on the art scene and in the gay netherworld. Pairings in this volatile milieu are brittle, just as fashions in art appear to change fortnightly. Koch, the author of a book on Warhol's films, is well situated to provide a shrewd, engrossing insider's view of that moment when the New York school was riding the crest of the New Waveand he has done just that. (July)