BEACH TOWEL, SUNTAN LOTION AND `NEUROTICA'.Byline: Valerie Cashman Special to the Daily News ``Neurotica'' by Sue Margolis (320 pages, Bantam; $16.95) Our rating: Three stars Summer is here and with the change in weather comes the desire for the infamous Beach Book. Ideally, a beach book should be light, fun, entertaining and not too demanding. Meeting all this criteria is the brand new novel ``Neurotica,'' by first-time British novelist Sue Margolis. Being advertised as ``in the tradition of Bridget Jones's Diary,'' ``Neurotica'' is funny; a bawdy bawd·y adj. bawd·i·er, bawd·i·est 1. Humorously coarse; risqué. 2. Vulgar; lewd. bawd  i·ly adv. and ribald rib·ald adj. Characterized by or indulging in vulgar, lewd humor. n. A vulgar, lewdly funny person. [From Middle English ribaud, ribald person, from Old French, from tale. Thirty-something Anna Shapiro Anna D. Shapiro is a theatre director. She was born in Evanston, Illinois and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and the recipient of a 1996 Princess Grace Award. is a married tabloid journalist whose husband is so involved in his own neurotic hypochondria hypochondria (hī'pəkŏn`drēə), in psychology, a disorder characterized by an exaggeration of imagined or negligible physical ailment. that their sex life is non-existent. As Anna explains to her friend Allison, ``He's too frightened to come in case the strain of it gives him a heart attack, and then if he does manage it he takes off the condom afterward, looks to see how much semen he produced in case he has a blockage somewhere then examines it for traces of blood.'' Needless to say, this behavior has left Anna sexually frustrated and unsatisfied. When in the course of her job she has to review ``The Clitoris Centered Woman,'' Anna is moved by the spirit of research to disprove disprove, v to refute or to prove false by affirmative evidence to the contrary. the book's thesis that ``women don't go for extra-marital shagging Shagging may refer to:
Emboldened em·bold·en tr.v. em·bold·ened, em·bold·en·ing, em·bold·ens To foster boldness or courage in; encourage. See Synonyms at encourage. Adj. 1. by her luck picking up an attractive long-lost airline pilot cousin at her Uncle Henry's funeral, Anna signs up with Liaisons Dangereux, ``a dating agency with a difference.'' The difference is it's a dating agency for secret adulterers, which is perfect for Anna. With Anna busy pursuing her ``research,'' her husband Dan is busy himself, with doctors and diagnostic tests and eventually, a shrink. He finally begins to deal with his hypochondria ironically at the same time Anna is dealing with her sexual frustration. Their parallel but not yet intersecting paths lead to some dynamic tension in their marriage since neither has told the other what they are up to. A collision seems inevitable; will it be a wreck or an epiphany? The odds seem 50-50 until the very end of the book. Margolis does a nice job with the plotting, keeping the reader paging through to see mainly what interesting scrapes Anna gets herself into and out of. There seems no end to what this woman is capable of, and a few of her adventures seem over-the-top: Is this a teen-ager trapped in a woman's body? But with her wit, humor and nice turn of phrase, Anna is eventually an endearing if occasionally infuriating character. There are a few kids, friends, in-laws, co-workers, and a subplot sub·plot n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. or two mixed in to give the book some punch. All in all a fun and entertaining read, if not overly deep. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1) no caption (Sue Margolis) (2) no caption (Book cover - Neurotica) |
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