I^ndecision by Benjamin Kunkel. Random House, 241pgs., $21.95

Benjamin Kunkel's surprisingly well-written, sometimes funny, but ultimately disappointing, first novel begs (and answers) the question: does the literary world really need another coming-of-age-tale about a smart, self-aware preppy loser trying to find himself in a world that only exists in the minds of twenty-something preppy writers?

Well . . . the answer is a resounding "NO," but that doesn't stop such novels from being written or finding publishers. Understand, I am not talking about the Coming-of-age tale in general; I am talking about a specific kind of Coming-of-age tale that has been done to death since Salinger wrote what may be the greatest American coming-of-age novel, Catcher in the Rye. I'm talking about the WASPY,slacker-by-choice novel in which the conflict isn't much of a conflict and the whole story reads like the interior monologue of a young Dick Cavett under the influence of Mexican hash and sucking at the tits of unintelligible European Cinema vérité after an uncomfortable summer of reading Proust in the Hamptons. Okay, perhaps I'm being hyperbolical, but you get picture. The point is, Indecision is the kind of novel that every other twenty-something male MFA candidate has in his drawer.

The novel begins about a week before Dwight exits New York for the Quito, Ecuador. Dwight is in bed with his not-quite girlfriend, Vaneetha with whom he occasionally sleeps with, but doesn't quite have sex with "except when drunk." And, guess what? This relationship doesn't quite make sense either. Dwight also has three roommates who don't really emerge as more than window-dressing for his small, slacker New York apartment. Dwight suffers from a condition, we are told, which prevents him from making decisions. His med student roomie turns him on to a fictional drug that can remedy his condition but, before the drug can take effect, Dwight does something completely unlikely -- he makes a decision to travel to Ecuador to visit an old prep school girlfriend. His friend, Natasha is nowhere to be found but, no worries, European anthropologist, Brigid is there to connect with. The story, which is pointless to begin with, really veers off the cliff after Brigid enters the picture. It seems Kunkel changed his mind somewhere in the middle of writing this story or, perhaps, had no clear plan when he set off on Dwight's journey. Without giving away the rest of the story, I will say that it involves some sex, drugs and a fair amount of dialogue about the socio-economic plight of the poor.

The book does have some light bits that some will find amusing, and Kunkel can string a sentence together, but this book doesn't really go anywhere. And, I didn't really care that much about these characters. While Dwight's voice may be considered unique, Kunkel confuses Dwight's neurosis with complexity. Dwight is self-aware enough to realize he is a loser living a stereotypical slacker existence, the story never quite rises above the clichés of this type of novel. That the author seems aware of the clichés only adds to the reader's disappointment. Rather than completely turn this novel on its ear and do a full-on parody of this kind of story (or even a smart piece of meta-fiction), Kunkel seems confused about his intentions. Hell, he's downright indecisive.

-- Reviewed by JCE