ACROSS FROM THE FLORAL PARK

Across from the Floral Park -- no place to be -- is even quirkier (the publishers, wrongly, say kinky) than The Tenants Were Corrie and Tennie (1973). Mostly about Simon, whose money enables him to buy the beautiful house with the sleeping-beauty Joan in it even if it will never compensate for the fact that she can be briefly had but never securely possessed. Joan dusts in long mauve suede gloves and has several gentlemen; Simon wears brown shoes, is too ""round,"" and seems to be a dolt with nothing going on in his head except his obsession with Joan -- save for the overwhelming apercu that it is better to love than be loved. For all its hapless tenderness, this is no more than a brittle little bizarrerie and you may well find your attention wandering off the page.