It's Like Tama Janowitz....Minus The Wit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  "Neon In Daylight," Hermione Hoby's debut novel, is almost too straightforward for its own good.  In chronicling a group of disparate characters--Kate, a girl from London visiting New York to find herself, during the Summer and Fall several years back, Bill, a washed up writer who wrote a novel that had a success comparable to, say, "The Corrections," only the novel is never fully titled or described, and his trampy, Hispanic drug pushing daughter, Inez, who also does dominatrix scenes with this guy.  Just an ordinary array of New Yorkers, East Village style.  And Brooklyn.

                                      Then there is Casey, Bill's friend, a geriatric who calls himself a "fuckin' faggot." It is never made clear whether is he dying from AIDS or just old age malaise, but his birthday party, which climaxes the book, is worth wading through the rest for.

                                        Not that there is anything overall wrong with this book.  Just that many of us readers have trod these paths before.  And will so again.  Janowitz' wit made her work definitive, catching the tenor of the times.  If Hoby was going for apathy, she failed, because her characters are too fully realized, but her book has no particular style, or point of view.

                                        Her true genius is where and how she chooses to end the book, which I will not deprive anyone here of.  But it is a clever move.

                                         For those like myself, who cannot get enough of New York novels, there is an audience for "Neon In Daylight."  If this is not your cup of tea, skip it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Let's see what Hoby does next.  She got this published, so someone out there must see something I don't.

                                         Still, I am willing to give her a chance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!