By Pam Walatka

Melissa Bank rocketed to fame and fortune with her first book, “Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing,” which, despite its title, was mostly not about the outdoors. Bank’s new book, “The Wonder Spot” (Viking, 2005), takes place, like the first, in suburban Philadelphia and New York City.

Both books are fiction, but the stories ring so true that they must be based on real-life experiences. In both books we follow a young, educated, suburban woman through her youth and post-graduate jobs in publishing.

The protagonist in “The Wonder Spot” is Sophie Applebaum, who starts out as a sardonic 12-year-old, fights off Hebrew lessons, adores but scrutinizes her family, grows up and takes the first steps toward becoming a writer, all the while trying out different boyfriends.

Sophie nails her parents with the clear eye of youth, but she loves them. Her father could compete with Atticus Finch (”To Kill a Mockingbird”) for wise and reasonable father. She is very fond of her brothers, and she consistently disapproves of their girlfriends.

Both books are collections of stories that could stand alone, but they also follow a chain of events. I like the way the stories don’t have tidy endings; they seem more realistic because they wander to a close without a denouement.

Bank seems nice. Her theme - young woman in Manhattan publishing business - is similar to that of “The Devil Wears Prada,” but the characters are not mean-spirited, nor are they afraid to reveal their weaknesses.

The strength of Bank’s work lies in her (lack of) plotting, her tone and her humor. The writing could be a little smoother. There are a number of clunky sentences that stop the reader cold. “I hesitated; with the lack of self-knowledge I’d exhibited for years to come, I’d signed up for an eight o’clock class.” Reading that sentence, I knew from experience exactly what she meant, but I was bothered by the odd combination of time frames within a sentence.

Then other sentences are perfect: “My mother told the same stories over and over - maybe twenty-five in all; if you added them up, there were only about two hours of her life that she wanted me to know about.”

Looking for a college: “Until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to me that my grades and test scores over the years were anything more than individual humiliations; I hadn’t realized that one day all of them would add up and count against me.”

To a boyfriend who phones and keeps repeating the same phrase: “‘Try to remember that we’re having a conversation,’ I say, ‘and your goal is to impart information.’”

About the light on a river: “It was golden, he says; it had the effect of making you nostalgic for a moment you were still in.”

If you like humorous semi-fiction about a young woman finding her way in the big city, I recommend this book.

Bank deserves her best-seller status. It’s reassuring that a lifelong slacker could be so

successful.

“The Wonder Spot” is available at Main Street Cafe & Books, 134 Main St.