The Young and the Feckless : Finally, a novel that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.(Prague by)

When we talk about beach reading, we usually mean trash fiction. But it wasn't always so. There used to be novels--they weren't common, but they did exist--that managed to be both entertaining and thoughtful. Think W. Somerset Maugham and those novels of naive Americans abroad and in over their heads. But since the passing of that generation, no one's come along to fill its shoes. Which is the first of several good reasons to welcome the arrival of Arthur Phillips, whose debut novel, the forthcoming "Prague" (Random House), not only keeps you turning pages but gives you something to think about and smile about--at the same time.

Start with the title. Nothing in this book takes place in Prague. To the story's twentysomething denizens, Prague is the place where someone else is having all the fun, like the party train in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories." Mark and Scott and Charles and Emily and John--a scholar, a teacher, a businessman, a ...