by Jonathan Lethem

isbn: 0375700129
subject: Fiction and Literature, SF, Humor
finished: 3/19/1998

The dialogue resembles Don DeLillo's, and the situations Mark Leyner's. It's about the Lack, a region of nothingness created by a particle physics experiment. Unlike a black hole, the Lack is discerning -- it might swallow a blue silk ribbon, but not a crystal saltshaker. The book is also about Alice Coombs, a researcher who falls in love with the personality she perceives in the Lack, and her boyfriend Phillip who cannot compete with a rival who gives her so little. As She Climbed Across the Table is engrossing and very funny; although subtitled "a novel," it feels more like a 200 page short story. Recommended.