A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla

A THING (OR TWO) ABOUT CURTIS AND CAMILLA Nick Fowler (Pantheon, $24.95) He’s a downtown rocker-to-be, she’s a dachshund-doting publicist, and together they make for one incredibly cute couple in Fowler’s self-consciously hip romance. The musician-turned-scribe commits a litany of first-novel no-nos: His dialogue is so preciously constructed that it’s implausible, and his reliance on footnotes and other literary gimmicks distances the reader from the emotionally flurried love story. Though Fowler obviously has a strong eye for the awkward interactions between the sexes, Thing would have been better served had he annexed an affectation or two.