OBLOMOV

Ivan Goncharov, translated by Marian Schwartz. (Seven Stories Press, 553 pages, $33.95)

If ever there were a story that spoke with absolute authority to today's aimless twenty- and thirtysomethings, it is this masterpiece of 19th-century Russian literature. And in Marian Schwartz's excellent transliteration, Ivan Goncharov's timeless tale of ennui and procrastination is fresh. Illya Ilich Oblomov is an indolent, incurious, kind-hearted procrastinator who is bogged down in the deadening minutia of the daily struggles of paying bills and meeting, if reluctantly, the conventional norms of life. Forced to choose between what he considers an unworthy existence and sleep, our hero chooses sleep -- "suicide by sofa," in the rapier-like analysis of Mikhail Shishkin's afterword to the book.

Oh, there's a girl in Oblomov's life, the fetching Olga Ilyinskaya, but even the sweet urges of love founder on the rocks of indolence as our hero shirks her pleas to take some (any!) responsibilities. What is left, but a persistent vegetative state and, ultimately, death. This is the quintessential slacker novel, laced with wry dialogue and delicious humor. Goncharov meant it as a portrait of the decline and fall of a particular class of nobility in late Imperial Russia, but its meaning today could not be more apparent. Keenly insightful yet disarmingly sympathetic, the novel remains one of the most popular elements of the Russian literary canon. You'll love it.

MICHAEL J. BONAFIELD

TURNING TABLES

By Heather and Rose MacDowell. (Bantam Discovery. 324 pages. $13 paperback.)

"Turning Tables" is predictable chick lit, but I kept turning the pages. Erin Edwards had her career together. Suddenly, it unraveled, and she was waiting tables. Not just any tables, but tables at Roulette, a Manhattan hot spot. Erin tries to hide her complete lack of experience, and her foibles paint a hyper-funny picture of the restaurant-kitchen culture. The chef with the supersized ego and the social skills of a toddler could be a book on his own. The descriptions of the food are superb. (Dessert, anyone?) The romance story line seems unlikely, and some of the antics get silly and bawdy, but anyone who has worked at a restaurant -- or in any job feeling hopelessly underwater -- will empathize with Erin and will howl at the scenes involving the restaurant critic. Warning: You might be a better tipper after finishing this one.

HOLLY COLLIER, NEWS EDITOR