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Photo: Youngsters at
play on West Side, 1955
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Santa Rosa,
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• French country home
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2-bedrooms
• Overlooks the prestigious Mayacama
Golf Course
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many other homes in Santa Rosa.
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BE MORE CHILL
By Ned Vizzini.
Miramax/Hyperion, $16.95. (Ages 13 and up)
Ned Vizzini's novel ''Be More Chill'' is so accurate that it should
come with a warning: May Lead to Horrified Recognition in Any Reader
Who Has Ever Been, or Known, a Sexually Frustrated Teenage Boy. Vizzini
anatomizes high school lust and social scheming without any condescending
reassurance. If it weren't so funny, his first novel might be too
painful to read.
Jeremy Heere is a prototypical loser of the 21st century. His pleasures
come from Internet porn -- expect hilariously explicit language and
sexuality throughout -- and not much else. His extensive humiliations,
on the other hand, are tallied on preprinted sheets with categories
like Snicker, Laugh, Refusal to Return a Head Nod and ''Mortification
Event (a catch-all).'' Jeremy knows enough to recognize that ''being
Cool is obviously the most important thing on earth,'' and when the
opportunity to purchase a ''squip'' arises, he knows that it's his
only hope. A squip is a swallowable supercomputer that does homework,
picks out clothes and, most important, helps talk to girls. ''Human
social activity is governed by rules,'' the squip tells Jeremy, ''and
I have the processing capacity to understand, obey and utilize those
rules.''
The concept is original enough, but the fun comes in the execution,
particularly in the dialogues between Jeremy and his wisecracking
electronic mentor. When the squip fails Jeremy, leading to a wry denouement,
it's a failure of rules, not imagination. ''I'm badly programmed,''
says the squip. ''Get version 4.0 when it comes out.''
SIMON RODBERG
Special
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