Going Public

Compulsive achiever Corey Richardson has a problem--he is ``hungry for the chaotic stew of family life yet attracted to a leaner and less consuming way to love.'' In fact, almost everyone wants what he can't have in this sharp novel about the perverse linkage of romance and status. Corey is the head of Camelot, a thriving software firm which he founded. As his fortunes have risen, however, his wife, Angela, ``has refused to change, to enjoy.'' So he leaves her for Marla, a younger executive at Camelot who happens to be ``leaner and less consuming.'' But when Angela regroups and becomes a successful photographer, Corey feels the old attraction again. Likewise, Marla, taking Corey for granted, begins to date a younger man. If this sounds like the stuff of relationship cliche, it is. But Woods ( The Kitchen Man ) keeps it alive by focusing on the paradox wherein the chase is more fun than the supposedly happy-ever-after. He also does a fine send-up of one of the few industries in which the Fortune 500 execs live on candy bars and go to work in high-tops. Woods uses sentiment without sentimentality to show the warts-and-all of modern romance. One hopes that this novel will not become lost in the confusion bound to result from the publication this season of two other books with the same title (from HarperCollins and Birch Lane). (May)