by John Weitz
Ho hum. Here we are again in the Hamptons out on Long Island with those familiar rich folks who drink a lot and run around in the most expensive perfumes and cars. They make anti-Semitic cracks, and that kind of talk makes the protagonist, a car salesman from Germany, uncomfortable. There are the lengthy flashbacks to his homeland during the Hitler era, while the author tries to deal with a serious subject: how a good man goes along with Nazi evils. Weitz, a fashion designer, was born in Berlin, left in 1939 and lives in New York. This is his second novel. Unfortunately, the book's superficial characters and clunky plot about whether the salesman will get his U.S. citizenship all conspire to trivialize a subtle, difficult and important theme. (Macmillan, $15.95)
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