Misadventures

From single Londoner of a certain age Sylvia Smith comes Misadventures, a compulsively readable series of vignettes that adds up to a comic and touching if rather episodic memoir. The tale of one woman's journey from working-class childhood through a slightly rebellious adolescence all the way to a bemused middle age, this debut work chronicles the author's unrewarding jobs and unfortunate dates, her experiences in grocery stores and the funny things she saw or her friend said with sly wit and a kind of dead pan grace. Each of the anecdotes (many of which are named for the person discussed therein) feature a brief introduction (""John was someone I met at a dance when I was twenty-five Our relationship lasted precisely three dances"") and while not all are satisfying, they are so short, so spare, that readers will find themselves unable to not proceed to the next. ( Nov.)