Hilarity prominent in Bogosian's Mall
by Brian Abrams, Reporter

   It's been sitting on the shelves of Barnes & Noble for more than two years, but Eric Bogosian's Mall ($13, Simon & Schuster) speaks in hilarity, nothing but the honest-to-goodness truth, about a suburbanite's repression within the confines of the mini-mall world.
   Thirty-something Mal still lives with his mother.
   Day after day, he gazes at the Police Academy marathons on the USA Network, the stale old-lady shoe stores and nail salons and every other element of drudgery within his cute and fuzzy neighborhood.
   Oh, did I mention that he becomes a speed freak and a raging lunatic who ends up murdering his mom, setting the house on fire and rampaging the nameless local shopping mall?
   This plot may sound like some gruesome pages to get through, but curly black-haired Bogosian (whom you may obscurely know as Mr. Nice Guy in Igby Goes Down, the bad guy in Under Siege 2 or possibly as the author of SubUrbia and Talk Radio) writes in a casually conversational New England manner that somehow allows the reader to turn the page and even laugh-out loud.
   The psychotic Mal isn't the only lost soul tormented by his TCBY/California Pizza Kitchen world.
   There's Jeff, the acid-tripping Rasta teenager (based slightly on Bogosian in his younger years); Danny, the uppie-yuppie mistaken for a peeping tom; Donna, a sexy housewife so bored with her family life she resorts to drinking and cheap thrills, and Michel, the mall security guard turned Rambo.
   For every character's move, there is an understanding.
   All the while reading about voyeurs and murderers, the reader can't help but enjoy their stories that all occur within one day at the mall.
   The story keeps moving; the laughs keep coming, and even a little eroticism may surface.
   Unfortunately, Bogosian doubts the chances for an adaptation to the screen. He seems to think the book is too violent.
   But you never know: plenty of maniacs who live in Hollywood might think differently, and they have plenty of money.
   With a little hope, someone out there will convince Bogosian otherwise, but there is no sense in waiting. At a breezy 248 pages, Mall releases an absolute riot.