THE FAN

The perfect novel for this season of baseball discontent, Peter Abrahams’ THE FAN (Warner, $22.95) is a shrewdly crafted thriller about a spoiled, egotistical home run hitter and the schlemiel hunting-knife dealer’s rep whose hero worship metastasizes into obsession as his own life goes to pieces. If the basic situation resembles that of a half-dozen stalker films, the tale’s sharp characterizations, crisp style, and unpredictable plot twists add up to a highly credible and suspenseful literary entertainment. To Boston Red Sox fans, the signing of $5.05 million free agent Bobby Rayburn represents hope itself. ”He’s not the Messiah, good people,” cautions a skeptical sports talk-radio host. ”He’s not coming down from heaven with a Louisville Slugger raised on high.” But that’s not how dedicated Sox fan Gil Renard sees it. Phoning from his BMW between sales calls, Gil’s a regular on JOC-Radio-Boston’s 24-hour sports- talk station. Sure, he tends to be a little nuts on the subject of Bobby Rayburn, but then, so do half the station’s callers. So what if Gil’s fixation on the slugger is tied up with his own lost dreams of baseball glory and absurd hopes for his estranged son? Aren’t everybody’s? But after Gil loses his job, his fascination with Rayburn veers toward psychosis. The slugger doesn’t know that Gil exists. Yet in the fan’s mind, their destinies are linked. When Bobby falls into an inexplicable batting slump, the first of his career, Gil’s sure he can help. Equally superstitious in their separate ways, both men inhabit make-believe worlds-the difference being that the ballplayer has the capacity, albeit | belatedly, to recognize it. Abrahams knows his baseball. But more important, he understands the scene and the personalities who inhabit it. Knowing, tense, witty, and persuasive. A-