With his girlfriend demanding a baby, his agent demanding seriousness toward acting, his father dead, and his brother dying, Benjamin West, a man for whom life has always been a snap, struggles to deal with life's uncertainties. A first novel.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This self-conscious first novel exploits erotic territory mined more successfully by Philip Roth. Benjamin West, a popular TV actor, drifts through life with a noncommittal, stay-in-bed attitude. His earnest girlfriend Jessica's announcement that she wants to marry him and have a baby triggers his defensive anger. Benjamin's sexual ruminations become tedious and his meditations on his Jewish identity are often uninspired ("There is nothing so alienating as being a Jew in New York during Christmas"). Gradually, Benjamin is revealed as more than a cocky narcissist. He is guilt-ridden for having helped his father commit suicide; he converses with apparitions of his dad, who had a phobia that his Brooklyn neighborhood would be overrun by Cossack hordes, and of his overprotective mother, also deceased. Two shocks propel Benjamin toward maturity: one involves Jessica and the other his brother, who is stricken with testicular cancer. But by the time Benjamin grows up at age 38, the reader doesn't much care. There are fiercely tender passages here, and a good deal of triteness.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This sketchy first novel involves the coming of age of the narrator, a Jewish actor named Benjamin. With a slapstick beginning of off-colored jokes and burlesque humor, the novel settles down to give us a glimpse of Benjamin's life while growing up in Brooklyn and his present involvement with the New York acting scene. Finally, Benjamin must choose between continuing his selfish lifestyle or accepting the responsibility of marriage and family. The characters, however, are never developed enough to elicit any personal feelings or concern. The novel remains a flat series of self-absorbed vignettes that become predictable and fail to sustain reader interest. Not an essential purchase.
- David A. Berona, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- David A. Berona, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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