Manhattan’s East Village, 1993. Crime is high, but rent is low, luring hopeful, creative kids from sleepy suburbs around the country. One of these is Jack S., a young New Jersey rock musician. Just a few days before his band’s biggest gig, their lead singer goes missing with Jack’s prized bass, presumably to hock it to feed his junk habit. Jack’s search for his buddy uncovers a sinister entanglement of crimes tied to local real estate barons looking to remake New York City --- and who also might be connected to the recent death of Jack’s punk rock mentor. Along the way, Jack encounters a cast of colorful characters, including a tough-talking cop who fancies himself a retro-cool icon of the homicide squad but is harboring a surprising secret.

In an America convulsed by political upheaval, cultural discord, environmental catastrophe and spiritual confusion, so many of us find ourselves anxious and distracted, searching desperately for peace, salvation and focus. Enter Hark Morner, a failed stand-up comic turned mindfulness guru whose revolutionary program is set to captivate the masses. But for Fraz and Tovah, a middle-aged couple slogging through a very rough patch, it may take more than the tenets of Hark’s “Mental Archery” to solve the riddles of love, lust, work and parenthood on the eve of civilizational collapse. And given the sudden power of certain fringe players, it just might be too late. But what’s the point of a world, even a blasted-out post-apocalyptic world, if they don’t try with all their might to keep their marriage alive?

Sam Lipsyte’s second collection of short stories features the characters you would expect to see in a Lipsyte book: wise-cracking slackers from New York and New Jersey, most of them male, with drug and commitment problems. But you also get well-rounded female characters, touching moments between dying parents and their adult progeny, and surprisingly poetic writing. THE FUN PARTS fulfills the promise of VENUS DRIVE, Lipsyte’s vivid first collection.