Clark Blaise gives us in Lunar Attractions what almost amounts to an anthropological study of the initiation rites that an American boy, David Greenwood, passes through in the 1940's and 1950's. The boy elaborates, in a childhood in Florida and an adolescence in a northern city named Palestra, a magical world of myth, ritual, and totemic significance that seems as strange and exotic as that of a primitive tribesman in New Guinea…. The book moves the hero along steadily through experiences which close down chapters of innocence. There are lovingly detailed accounts of the arcane lore of Triple A baseball, stamp collecting, museum haunting, archaeology, and the secret thrills to be experienced in burlesque houses. Though there are connective tissues in these vividly written sections, there is a sense at times that they could be detached and presented as short stories or as essays for The New Yorker...