If ever the product of nepotism has contributed to the enlightenment of our culture, it is now with the debut novel, Twelve (Grove Press; $23.00), by the brilliant and talented wunderkind of Generation Y, Nick McDonell. McDonell's father is a prominent editor (Rolling Stone, Esquire, Sports Illustrated) and close friend to famous writers Hunter S. Thompson and Richard Price, both of whom contributed glowing reviews of young Nick's novel that appeared on the jacket of its first edition. His mother is an accomplished novelist and screenwriter. It would seem that Nick was born with a silver book contract in his mouth. Fortunately, Nick has taken advantage of his good genetic fortune by writing a novel better than any other currently on display on the New Fiction shelves. It is certainly better than the other much ballyhooed debut novel, Prague, by Arthur Phillips.

While most critics have been hailing Twelve as the next Less Than Zero, I would contend that it has much more in common with Richard Price's debut novel, The Wanderers. Price's novel chronicles the ribald and picaresque lives of Italian-American youths in 1963 New York City; in Twelve the kids are basically the same type of knuckleheads, except they come from more affluent families and their sensibilities have been more affected by the massive deluge of youth lifestyle marketing that is more prevalent today than back then. However, the same youthful penchant for mischief and mayhem drives the characters in both novels, and each presents an excellent anthropological study of the youth culture of their respective eras in American history.

Both authors brilliantly capture the hip youth street lingo and styles of his era: for Price it's the Doo-Wop, Dionesque, Rebels Without a Cause, pre-hippie 60's; for McDonell it's the Hip-Hop, Eminemesque, Rebels Without a Conscience, Brat-Pack-on-'roids 00's. Forty years later, the slang and styles of The Wanderers sound corny, like a bad episode of Happy Days; in our hyperactive, here-today-and-banished-to-a-VH-1-"Where are They Now" episode-tomorrow, Twelve will sound less cool much earlier--probably by this Christmas, to be honest. By then White Mike will join Richey, Perry, Terror, and Joey from The Wanderers in the "has-been" cool bin, along with James Dean, Holden Caulfield, Elvis, The Beatles, Jim Morrison, Hendrix, Easy Rider, Bowie, Fonzie, Sid Vicious, Jeff Spiccoli (who spawned a whole generation of lovable, insipid, and goofy stoner surfer dudes like Bill & Ted, Wayne & Garth, Beavis & Butthead, et al.), Axl Rose, Curt Cobain, and all the other youth cool archetypes who either die before they get old, or get old, fat, and appear on VH-1 specials. We all hope that comes very soon for Eminem.