MISSING MARGATE by Michael Bracewell (The...

MISSING MARGATE by Michael Bracewell (The Fourth Estate / Trafalgar Square: $11.95). The hero of Bracewell’s mannered, satirical novel is a disillusioned architect who’s reached the pinnacle of trendy success, only to find it unfulfilling. Max De Winter (who lives with his wife, Rebecca, at New Manderly) has created a new skyline for London with his innovative structures: “Pacman Software; D’Arblays, Self & Assurance; The Historic Invoices Library of the Museum of Corporate Finance, and the Church of God the Truth, Tower Hill.” Utterly bored with his work and the hangers-on it attracts (including the vacuous staff of the avant-garde journal Designate), Max decides that bombing his buildings represents the only means of freeing himself from the stultifying ennui that plagues him. The hip, acclaimed builder transforms himself into an anonymous agent of destruction in a comic novel that recalls the work of Evelyn Waugh and Ronald Firbanks.