Hardy? Har, har

STEPHEN AMIDON

The Grammar ArchitectBy Chris EatonInsomniac, 287 pages, $21.95Although Chris Eaton claims his second novel is "a cover of Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes," readers looking for a faithful adaptation of the Victorian romance will be deeply baffled. The Grammar Architect is nothing like Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres, which relocated King Lear to Iowa, or even Michael Cunningham's The Hours, which provided a series of variations on Mrs. Dalloway. Eaton's work intersects Hardy's only at the most oblique angles, using A Pair of Blue Eyes as little more than a springboard for a leap into fragmented, idiosyncratic whimsy. Think of Frank Zappa covering Beethoven's Pastoral symphony in three minutes on a Stratocaster and you will get an idea of the sort of homage at work here.