Reservations Recommended (trade paperback)

Book excerpt: Peter Leroy constructs a plausible adult life for his grade school chum Matthew Barber, now living in Boston, where he is vice-president of a toy company by day, but becomes Bertram W. Beath, restaurant reviewer, when the sun goes down. Reservations Recommended is a satire of the critical mind; a dark commentary on contemporary culture; a story of midlife crisis; a morality play; and a book that matches bleakness against humor, seasoned throughout with B. W. Beath's hilariously acid reviews. We watch as Matthew Barber descends from a self-protective superiority into a species of madness, and into the dark night of the soul. "A brilliant satire." LA Life "A merciless sendup of contemporary American pretensions.' Janice Harayda, Cleveland Plain Dealer "Wonderfully readable . . . touching and intelligent." Richard Gehr, The Village Voice