FICTION

THE LOVE SONGS OF PHOENIX BAY by Nisa Donnelly. (St. Martin’s: $21.95; 301 pp.) For some strange reason, Nisa Donnelly’s novel, “The Love Songs of Phoenix Bay” becomes about 10 times more enjoyable whenever Phoenix Bay isn’t in the picture. This is unfortunate since she is the main character. Having been unceremoniously dumped by a lover of many years, Phoenix, an incredibly depressed, overwhelmed, gay woman, moves in with Rennie, a close friend dying of AIDS. Eventually, they are joined by Cecile, Rennie’s sister who, like Rennie and Phoenix, is also suffering from a terrible loss.

As she struggles to pull her life together and find love, Phoenix often falls prey to a subtle kind of solipsism, a claustrophobic belief that she is a piece of dirt around which the world revolves. In addition, Donnelly’s writing is quite dense and introspective, which adds to the problem. “The thing about teetering on the edge of madness is how those on the outside assume it is a perpetual state, like blindness or deafness, or any number of other not fatal but highly inconvenient afflictions. Only those on the inside know how it comes and goes, masking itself like perfect sanity, depending on the situation.”

Nisa Donnelly can write. The sections from Rennie’s point of view as he tries to cope with the loss of his lover and his own impending death, are wonderful. One may wish that Phoenix had been given the same deft touch that makes a character get into your system and stay there.