THE SAD-EYED LADIES

A first-person account of the singles scene in all its sordid splendor, by an author whose detached, often humorous view of the swinging scene gives the impression that she'd never have been there in the first place had she next been writing this. There she is, nevertheless, in New York, where eye contact leading to later body contact is first made via behind-the-bar mirrors; in California, at singles apartment compounds, where men drop full garbage bags from the windows on to the heads of female passers-by to get a laugh; and in Chicago, where the optimal date is a commodities broker, but the indignities are the same as in the rest of the country. Maracotta's portrait is accurate, up to the moment, and very, very sad. Non-fiction's answer to Looking for Mr. Goodbar.