KISSING YOUR EX

A besotted ex-husband; a boss and lover more handsome than Peter Gallagher; and an overworked FedEx carrier: latter-day love, in all its messy glory.

Maddy Green is a 37-year-old successful art director in an Atlanta ad agency. She’s an only child, an Oberlin College grad, a light drinker. She keeps a small menagerie in her apartment, a cozy place befitting Mary Tyler Moore. She’s been bad, though whether that ended her marriage to the apparently wonderful Jack is something she’s not quite sure about. Indeed, Maddy reflects, “The problem was complicated: Our divorce was amicable. There was none of the usual bitterness.” This latest tale from Stevens (Tattoo Girl, 2001, etc.) begins as an airy and frothy confection, but as it proceeds, both Maddy and Jack and those in their immediate orbit find reasons to be bitter, and things get more interesting. For Maddy’s part, it’s the discovery that strapping, hiking-boot–clad Jack, the heroic hippie born ten years too late for the ’60s, is way less than perfect, even though, three years after the divorce, he’s come calling to announce that he’s mended his ways. On Jack’s part, it’s that Maddy left behind a tangible reminder of her own wayward behavior back in the day. What better than a tropical island getaway for sorting out the mess? Though her story sometimes threatens to dissolve into terminal cuteness and is marred by clumsy passages (“I pushed my long straight brown hair behind my ears”), Stevens has a sure take on the foibles of relationships. Arch and funny, she takes her readers on a bumpy ride, punctuated by nicely observed aperçus (“Never underestimate the difficulties of coming home to an empty apartment every night”; “Talking to a best friend, I’ve noticed, is nearly synonymous with complaining”), that closes with easily foreseen but nonetheless crowd-pleasing fireworks.

Not high art, but it’ll work for the beach or the plane.