BRIEFLY NOTED.

Elements of Style, by Wendy Wasserstein (Knopf; $23.95). The playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died earlier this year, had the rare ability to be sardonic and compassionate at once--a talent put to the test in this novel about the goofy attempts of Manhattan ladies who lunch to adapt to post-9/11 life. The Axis of Evil notwithstanding, the characters' lives continue to consist mainly of elaborate dances of social one-upmanship. The heroine, through whose eyes the other characters are satirized, is a well-groomed (Spence, Princeton) woman who, unlike her friends, is unmarried and works for a living--as a Fifth Avenue pediatrician, treating both the children of her social peers and the disadvantaged of East Harlem. While the keynote is hilarity, Wasserstein also demonstrates, with sly grace, a vulnerability that cuts across class lines.

4% Famous, by Deborah Schoeneman (Shaye Areheart; $21.95). The recent scandal at the New York Post couldn't have come at a better time for this debut novel; Schoeneman, a former Page Six contributor, makes much of the perks, freebies, and quid pro quo of the gossip game. Her heroine aspires to be an investigative reporter but has a job as the "legs" for a weekly column, trawling the party circuit for tidbits of rumor. The plot is unashamedly formulaic: girl meets dashing, on-the-rise chef; chef breaks girl's heart; chef fails miserably while girl finds happiness with the boring but decent guy who was there all along. Schoeneman's occasional attempts at social critique--for instance, the observation that very thin girls may be on Ritalin--come off more like life-style tips, and the novel's many veiled references to actual people make it read something like an extended blind item.

House of War, by James Carroll (Houghton Mifflin; $30). Carroll was born the same week in January, 1943, that the Pentagon was dedicated, the ...