In the future, everyone lives in vast suburban Tracts in little boxes made of ticky-tacky. All Cities have been evacuated and sealed, deemed too filthy for human habitation. They reopen Manhattan Dome every summer as a sort of Vegas playground for Tract folks.

When Ron visits Manhattan with his dad near the end of the summer, he can’t get enough. (The girls, after all, are “fantastic.”) He runs away from home for a last weekend fling before they close the City. Like a good suburban tourist, he picks up a hot chick who steals his money and gets beat up by a guy who steals his ID. Without an ID he can’t leave the Dome before it closes for the year. He’s trapped.

(Rest of review at http://www.parenthetical.net/2010/04/22/city-of-darkness-by-ben-bova-1976/) ( )