BOOMFELL

Civilized but not bloodless: a first novel that takes a discerning look at the discontents and gratifications of a middle-class New England couple pushing 40. Hobbie is excellent on the routines—domestic and civic—of his locale: a small, cultivated municipality with a dash of rusticity that has attracted a ``mix of young entrepreneurs, healers, artists and academics.'' That the period is pre- recession can be gathered from the fact that his hero, Charles Boomfell, a failed English prof and neglected poet, has gone into the real-estate business as a way to have a more substantial life. Boomfell is a good father to his two children and a good enough husband to Val in a marriage where passion has been superseded by ``utilitarian sex.'' Both strayed at one time, but not so seriously as to rock the domestic boat. In contrast, their friend Eliot Singer, a Milton scholar and successful academic, throws himself into a romance with enough passion to rock the QE II in dry dock. The chapters that convey in his own words his overwrought condition are moving but ultimately somewhat tiresome, as needy narcissist Eliot himself would likely be. Another contrast is young Californian bisexual April, who works for the household-help agency that Val runs and who becomes infatuated with her employer. Free spirits like April are hard to write about convincingly, but Hobbie brings it off. His greatest success, however, is his depiction of the dailiness of a marriage between two decent people who wish each other well but are somewhat out of sync and can't salve each other's psychic wounds. People who might have been caricatures in less skillful hands are made flesh and blood by an author who handles them with humor but never at a distance.