**KIRKUS REVIEW** British satire from Bracewell (*The Crypto-Amnesia Club*, 1988--not reviewed) that follows a man and the three women who love him, much to their misfortune, from their small-town roots in the 1970's into the 1980's. Bracewell's style, though very urbane, sometimes patronizes its people, and the pleasures of this soufflé--witty turns of phrase, slick plotting--are minor ones that too soon wear thin. Miles Harrier ("The depth of his emotional slumber was extreme") is a ne'er-dowell fated to be loved by three women he's known since adolescence: Kelly O'Kelly, a performance artist full of regret and tearful outbursts, is "to play a major role in the life of Miles Harrier" and "due to fall hopelessly in love with him "after a childhood punctuated by an unsigned Valentine sent by her family" to cheer her up"; Lucinda Fortune also loves him, though "the vision they had shared as children could only have narrowed"; and Stella Walker-Jones, sexually repressed, is a fashion model who lives in a "curious mixture of country gentility and suburban snobbishness." Bracewell orchestras episodes while ruminating frequently: "Girls, as a race, elude the simple classification into '
For young readers
Book data: Open Library