A Novel  James Hynes  Reagan Arthur Books: 320 pp., $23.99
Being obsessive, white, upper middle class and male isn't
exactly the prescription for high drama these days. Not while
the earth is shaking and swallowing entire cities. Not while
people are blowing themselves up in the name of some perceived
greater good. And certainly not while we keep being warned that
if we don't vote for certain candidates, tidal waves of
terrorists will soon arrive on our shores looking to kill each
and every one of us. It's enough to make anyone paranoid,
really. And it's absolutely enough to drive Kevin Quinn, the
obsessive, white, upper-middle-class male at the center of James
Hynes' wildly inventive, stunning novel "Next" into a dizzying
spiral of self- (and sexual) recrimination, comic misadventure
and existential -- and then very real -- fear over the duration
of a mere eight hours.  At 50 and facing the downward slope of
his career and life, Kevin is the sort of man who can't untether
himself from his worst decisions, r