TWO AGAINST ONE

by Frederick Barthelme ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1988

Disconnection defines this contemporary love story (a sort of wacky update of the film Jules and Jim) in which a fictional mÉnage of lovers talk their lives away in loopy conversations, and always at cross purposes. Barthelme advances beyond the narrative extremes of his minimalist short-story collections in this, his third novel. But it's still full of trendy stuff, beginning with the very relationship alluded to in the title, though even that is a matter of flux and shifting alliances. Edward Lasco, the prevailing consciousness here, has been living alone for six months since his wife, Elisa, left him for a job a hundred miles away. During this enforced bachelorhood, he's grown used to spending his time watching TV and reading computer mags, and has developed an obsession with cleanliness. When his wife of nearly 15 years suddenly reappears on his 40th birthday, he's torn between desire and loathing--an emotional geography mapped out in his Catholic youth. What Elise proposes is a ""very modern relationship"" since it's to incorporate her feelings for Roscoe, who's something of a clone of Edward, and who lives plationically with Elise, even though they were lovers long ago. Others want to get in on this sexless love affair: Lurleen, Elise's fat feminist friend; and Kinta, an old girlfriend of Edward's who exudes animal lust. That they're all childless and work at unknown jobs is beside the point, since all this ping-pongy conversation takes place over one weekend--a weekend that ends with no resolution, but with a weird affirmation of Elise's love (and that involves Kinta urinating on Edward). Barthelme pads out this ""sixties art-movie version of things"" with random scenes of weirdness and menace: closed fast-food franchises, traffic jams in the middle of nowhere, a boy kneeling in the street being run over, a long list of cereal names, and so on. Non sequiturs pass for wit among the zombies who people this nightmare of the living dead.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1988

ISBN: 0802134602

Page Count: -

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION