Tom Lynch

In her newest novel, Julie Hecht places alienation in the forefront. Her nameless narrator, returning from Hecht's previous novel "Do the Windows Open?," befriends a bright young man, and through various phone conversations, they ponder the daily atrocities the world has to offer. She hears him grow, through the way they speak about politics, the English language, and Manhattan's bitterness. They discuss the unprofessional nature of the higher-ups and the contemptible behavior of undisciplined pets. Hecht intimidates her readers with her seamless usage of humor and melancholy, and here, she sharply jabs at the texture of the globe. Everything that she writes is painfully genuine and airtight, making her unflinching writing so distinctive.

Hecht's narrator stands alone, the way a joke gone horribly wrong is left to drift in the wind, except here, the jokes are right on, and the character's seclusion is invited. Her frequent late-night trips to the local supermarket illustrate her routine, her self-awareness, her coping mechanisms. Hecht's hero is conscious of most everything. She traces the lines around each vivid recollection she and her friend have; she maps routes that will dictate her escape from herself. The boy simply makes it easier. She now has someone to instruct, someone to help grind through the cold steel walls that contain her.

Not that she minds being alone. She's alone, but not necessarily lonely. The novel's sadness shows signs of light at each end, and Hecht's continuous pounding of subtle jokes creates a barrier from wholehearted depression. Her boy does grow up. He isn't her son. He develops grownup problems that the narrator only hoped to keep him away from, and she consequently blames herself. Hecht doesn't condemn, she merely reveals. And revelations are what this book is all about.

The Unprofessionals

By Julie Hecht

Random House, 238 pages, $23.95

(2003-10-23)

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