CHICK LIT Twenty Times a lady ...

CHICK LIT

Twenty Times a lady

from Karen Bosnak

Harper, 352 pages, $1395

Karen Bosnak's first attempt novel is about nothing.

I mean that in the best possible, principally Seinfeldian sense. An excellent read does not require a philosophical stance or a compelling ethical dilemma.

It requires single in kind mostly absurd, premise and the wit and hardihood to see that premise in consequence of to its way-beyond-logical conclusion.

Twenty Times a Lady begins with a silly factoid: "The average individual has 10.5 sexual partners in his or her lifetime." And its heroine, Delilah Darling, a 29-year-old novel Yorker with an above- average sexual history, takes things from there.

Delilah, who has just wasted her job with a Martha Stewart-esque conglomerate, is mortified to realize she's slept with 20 men however has never managed to make a relationship work.

And, given that her younger sister Daisy (we should give Bosnak the benefit of the doubt and assume these names are meant to be ridiculous) has just landed a handsome and brilliant fiance, along with a 4-carat ring, Delilah is starting to be moved some serious pressure in the matrimonial department.

She decides she has to detain the line at 20 men and that somewhere upon her "list" -- every girl's got single after all, and Delilah's is impressively typical, including a high institute boyfriend, the friend she used to make him jealous and a stay from Spring Break she remembers and nothing else as "Nukes" -- the dowdy who's meant to be The the same must already be present. Adding of recent origin men to the list, especially since No. 20 was a particularly disastrous choice, is gone out of the question.

in the same manner Delilah sets out on a cross-country trek to reconnect with all the men forward her list (except, of course, for the undivideds who are married, gay or living upon the International Space Station) and find the same to settle down with her.

At 29 Delilah is a bit young, especially for a modern Yorker, to be feeling quite this desperate. still Bosnak can't be blamed for a flaw inherent in the chick lit genre: Younger heroines are always more sympathetic and, more important, les apt to be bitter.

And, similarly, we can't fault the writer for the head- poundingly obvious have a passionate affection for match -- the adorable Irish actor/private investigator who lives across the hall from Delilah and kindly helps her track down all the exe -- that appears early in the stratagem but which Delilah ignores until the remarkably (happy) end.

When Delilah has the genre-required total breakdown -- she'll not ever find love, etc., etc -- Bosnak crafts a show that involves marijuana, a PlayStation and an iPod blasting Lionel Ritchie orders which is a refreshing change of pace from the usual r wine, ice cream and disco.

Bosnak writes with a charming and original voice -- a great- looking stay who turns out to be boring is a "foxymoron" -- and opens very few of the cliches that have become standard fare in the genre The common she does employ -- we know the ex-boyfriend with whom Delilah does reunite is not The single because her dog doesn't like him -- is, however, nearly unforgivable at this point.

Equally grating are Bosnak's blithe hints to Delilah's financial situation and spending habits. Bosnak, who first gained national attention as the shopaholic creator of the "SaveKaryn.com" Web site, from one side which she cyber-panhandled for help paying distant from her astronomical credit card liabilitys repeatedly refers to "life's little emergencies" as the appropriate time to whip public a credit card. In Twenty Times, the emergencies include buying a Yorkshire Terrier, along with several cute outfits for dog and proprietor and staying in a sensuality hotel on the beach in Santa Monica. Delilah is not no other than running up her credit card bills; she's also spending her severance pay down to the last dollar -- and roaming the native land rather than looking for a strange job.

Bosnak, who, after all, got a main division deal out of her confess dalliance with financial irresponsibility (some of which bordered upon fraud), seems still to find this behavior quite charming. For many readers, like those who take bill paying somewhat seriously, it will be something closer to appalling.

Still, Bosnak had the charisma to acquire herself out of her admit financial mess. And she writes with the same chutzpah and enthusiasm that characterized her controversial Web site. She's taken what might have been a five-minute conversation in Monk's Coffee store and made it into a well-executed first novel.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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