ON MERMAID AVENUE by Binnie Kirshenbaum...

ON MERMAID AVENUE by Binnie Kirshenbaum (Fromm: $8.95; 166 pp.). Kirschenbaum’s novel should be read on an August afternoon on a train to the less chic section of the Hamptons; and, as is often the case with regional specialties, it doesn’t travel well. “Mermaid Avenue” recounts the antics of two determinedly kooky New York women. Staid Mona befriends Edie, who devotes all her time and energy to being eccentric. Edie is supposed to enchant the reader because she gives Mona the courage to live “an uncommon life.” But she emerges as less a free spirit than an irresponsible clod whose high jinks include vandalism and breaking and entering.