FICTION

NEED: A Novel by Lawrence David (Random House: $21; 363 pp.). “Need” has all the hallmarks of pop-trash, quasi-literary fiction--the monosyllabic title, selection by the Literary Guild book club, a blurb from Bret Easton Ellis, an author educated at Bennington and appearing completely without affect in his jacket-cover photograph. Too bad: “Need” is a much better book than those signs indicate, Lawrence David having the good sense to flesh out and dignify a high-concept plot instead of merely exploit it. Joan Dwyer has been depressed all her life, suicidally so since being left by her husband three years earlier, and is being treated three days a week by psychiatrist Pam Thompson; Pam, a consummate professional, is devoted to her patients and less so to her husband, commercial artist Dennis Perry. When Joan and Dennis exchange phone numbers in a local bar within the novel’s first 10 pages--Joan having just left therapy, Dennis about to meet Pam for dinner and everyone quite ignorant of the triangle--we know not only that they will soon embark on an affair but also that David intends to investigate the cracking open of psychic fault lines rather than string the reader along with theatrical plot twists. David, author of the earlier novel “Family Values,” has constructed “Need” with uncommon ingenuity, putting his personal knowledge of depression, therapy and the suicidal impulse to good use.