I bought this around 2008, but then never read it. (No particular reason — I buy, like, er, 10% more books than I have time to read, so some inevitably have to remain on the shelves.)
It’s pretty good? I like the formless quality it has — so many books I read are very plot heavy, and have a strict focus on getting somewhere, but this one feels more like a steady state object. It’s relaxing. I guess that’s not unusual for comedic books — more interested in character than structure…
But I think it’s a bit too long. If it had been 200 pages, it would have been a cute little book, but instead it’s 280 and it’s not. And while at no point in actually reading a page of this I said to myself “bored now”, it just felt like slightly too much. I can totally understand why McCauley would keep typing at this — he’d set up some characters you want to spend time with, but c’mon.
Hm… I see that the book has a low Goodreads score — only 3.41, which is way lower than I would have guessed.
Harsh! But nothing really stands out, except:
Few people really loved it — most thought it was pretty middling.
Alternatives to Sex (2006) by Stephen McCauley (buy new, buy used, 3.41 on Goodreads)