THE WICKED PAVILLION <i> by Dawn Powell (Vintage: $8.95) </i>

A slyly satirical tale of the New York art world during the early ‘50s, before skyrocketing prices completed its corruption. Dawn Powell offers a gallery of tongue-in-cheek portraits from that rarefied milieu: the successful artists and the artists manques ; a vulgar patron who expects a sexual return for her subsidies; shady dealers; an assortment of critics, drones and hangers-on. The Cafe Julien, a tiny gourmet restaurant on Washington Square, provides the bond for this diverse assortment of self-styled Bohemians.

But the real hero of the story is Manhattan, when it was a cleaner and safer place to live. Powell obviously is aware that her love for the city and its artistic demimonde is more foolish than wise, but she never lets that realization spoil her nostalgic evocation of a more innocent era.