On Mermaid Avenue

This rollicking first novel, which follows best friends Monarose and Edie from Manhattan undergraduate classes through their post-college search for men and happiness, offers the kind of hilarious, often poignant life knowledge that should be required for Mensa membership. Kirshenbaum, author of the story collection Married Life and Other Adventures , opens and closes this longer fiction with weddings, even though narrator Monarose observes, ``If this is supposed to be the biggest day in a girl's life, it doesn't leave much to look forward to.'' Edie introduces her previously docile friend to the outre --kohl eye makeup procured during a trip to Egypt, a homemade bugging device to spy on a former boyfriend--and since her hyperkinetic imagination can transform the least promising wimp into an exotic male to die for, a parade of questionable suitors enter and exit their lives. Tension builds in the friendship when one of the women becomes serious about a man the other detests, challenging Edie's ideal scenario: ``We could be like the Flintstones and the Rubbles, best friends who go bowling together.'' Mermaid Avenue is home to Coney Island's Cyclone roller coaster; this comic novel likewise presents the highs and lows of life's gritty truths for two dizzy dames. Author tour. ( Mar. )