FICTION

BOOMFELL by Douglas Hobbie (Henry Holt: $19.95; 281 pp.). The moral of this novel of friendship and loyalty might well be: Never accept a long-distance call from an obviously disturbed, onetime colleague and casual friend who is angling for a weekend invitation. A one-time English teacher and unsuccessful writer who currently is dabbling in real estate, Charles Boomfell is content, if not fulfilled, in a quiet little New England town. He needs his bombastic, ego-ridden house guest, Eliot Singer, like an impacted wisdom tooth. English professor Singer brings a lot of baggage with him: his marital problems, his obvious emotional and mental instability, his recent suicide attempt and a nonstop line of self-centered chatter that numbs the teeth. And yet as ogres go, Singer is an odd one and the very turmoil that he creates causes host Boomfell and his wife Val to reexamine their own priorities--which is more than most house guests leave as a parting gift.