RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE

RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE Jack Womack (Atlantic Monthly Press, $21) Womack's riveting fifth novel tracks the breakdown of American social order as tanks line the streets of New York, police wage violent drug and weapons searches, and Presidents hold office for the short time that it takes for them to be assassinated. Told through the diary entries of a 12-year-old named Lola, Random Acts opens with schoolgirl prattle, which evolves into the condensed dialect Lola learns from the vicious girl gang that adopts her when her family takes a free fall into poverty. Womack, who won the Philip K. Dick Award for Elvissey, performs feats of brilliance on many levels here. He succeeds in balancing blistering social commentary with shrewd literary experimentation in a heartrending coming-of-age story. Flecked with black humor, this is speculative fiction at its eerie best. A -Margot Mifflin