Perspective: A little romance in L.A.

Don't get me wrong. Of the multitalented-but-probably-still-best-known-as-a-comedian Steve Martin, I have always been a fan. I read Cruel Shoes, his funny book of silly stories, in middle school. And I still have my King Tut 45. I watched his creepy musical Pennies From Heaven at least a half a dozen times on HBO trying to understand. And I was thrilled when his essays started turning up in the Shouts and Murmurs column in the New Yorker because they are really smart and really funny.

But Shop Girl is not written as a funny book, though it is not without humor. Rather Martin's first full-length book of fiction is the familiar story of a man's midlife crisis (a la John Updike) masquerading as a nice little novella about a confused and lonely young woman (a la Breakfast at Tiffany's sans the glamour).

The story is set in Los Angeles. The shop girl in question is Mirabelle, a 29-year-old glove counter attendant at Neiman Marcus, "selling things that nobody buys anymore."

Mirabelle's lack-luster life involves driving to and from work, with the splurge of a six-dollar lunch at a nearby cafe in between. She has a master's degree in fine arts, two cats and a couple of friends who take her for granted. She takes Serzone -- one of several prescriptions she's tried for her depression. After a time, they all stop working.

Mirabelle had moved from Vermont to Los Angeles in an attempt to find herself, to grow up. That hasn't been working either until Ray Porter, a divorced 50-something businessman millionaire enters her life looking for a date. "He is single, he is kind, he tries to do the right thing, and he does not understand himself, or women, or his relationships with women."

Martin supplies us with endless details about Mirabelle, how her lack of guile, for example, sets her apart and above the catty, undereducated women who work Neiman's more popular counters. But we never really know her. The author sets this glass unicorn on a pedestal so high we can hardly see her. We know she's there only because the author tells us she is.

Not so with Mirabelle's beau Ray. He's full of human flaws. Ray has no clue how messed up he is, but we as readers sure can feel it. Too bad Martin doesn't give Mirabelle the same respect.

The romantic part of their relationship ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Mirabelle decides to become a woman and moves on. Ray is still confused.

Meanwhile we readers are left with smiles on our faces for a sweet story that's easily read in a day, and to wait in anticipation for Martin's next book.

- Helen A.S. Popkin is a writer who lives in New York.

Shop Girl

By Steve Martin

Hyperion, $17.95

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