The Day the Bozarts Died

The Blaisdell Street Artists Cooperative, carved out of an old Massachusetts college lab building in 1979 and "styled" after the Hotel des Beaux-Arts (or "Bozarts" for short) is petering out. Middle-aged playwright and resident schlemiel Stanley Noseworthy, whose most successful play was written 20 years before the book's present of 2004, has lived there since its inception and narrates. Stanley's romantic MO is to seek out arty 28-year-olds and stay with them "till the Bioclock d[o] us part": current partner Nina's clock has just gone off, just as young painter Rose Gately arrives at Bozarts. Intercut with Stan's gently annoying first person is a series of articles in the local paper, "The Day the Bozarts Died," detailing the history of the group and comically undermining Stan's perspective. Other than the "will-he-ever-learn?" aspect of Stan's romantic travails, the book lacks a central plot, but Duberstein (The Marriage Hearse ) presents an entertaining tableaux of fractious minor artists (painter Monk Barrett, sculptor Arnie Cloud and installation artist Carla Freemantle, among others) trying do their work while managing the demands of conventional life. (Oct.)

Correction: The title of Pam Jenoff's A Fine Crack of Light (Reviews, Aug. 7) has been changed to The Kommandant's Girl and the month of publication to March 2007.