Hard on the heels of McInerney's celebrated first novel, Bright Lights, Big City ( LJ 10/1/84) comes this tragic tale of a young American in Kyoto. Christopher Ransom, who hates his first name, has spent two years in a karate dojo trying to purge himself of his past and reclaim the spiritual bearings he has lost. He finds, though, that ``You can run, but you can't hide.'' The TV shows the Japanese love most are those produced by his estranged father. He is haunted by the memory of Annette, in whose death he had some complicity. And he's constantly hounded by crazed DeVito, a dishonorably discharged ex-Marine with a samurai haircut, who longs to study kendo with real swords rather than bamboo staves. The comic vision that informed Bright Lights surfaces again here, primarily in Ransom's gaijin amusement with the natives' imitation of anything American. Otherwise, this is a novel of high seriousness. Highly recommended. David Sowd, Stark Cty. District Lib., Canton, Ohio