Connor McKnight-former acolyte of film, Zen, and Japanese literature is not unaware that these avocations are wildly from his present occupation (fledgling celebrity journalist). Meanwhile, his longtime girlfriend, the fashion model Philomena, seems curiously remote, and soon decamps for the West Coast. Then there’s the sister with whom he shared a flamboyantly addled childhood, who now matches her brilliance for theoretical abstraction with a compassion for world suffering, imperiling her own well-being. These and other anxieties can scarcely be assuaged by his trio of flirting obsessions — a gorgeous stripper, a screenplay-in-progress, and the nation of a meaningful future-or by his principal ally and best friend, a monkishly neurotic and militantly vegetarian writer. With the holidays fast approaching and a female admirer stalking him by e-mail. Connor gropes his hapless, hilarious way toward not so much salvation as self-preservation.
