DREAMING

by Herbert Gold ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1988

Like its protagonist, Gold's latest novel deals mainly in surfaces--clothes, cars, and other ""lifestyle"" accouterments, especially as indulged by Hutch Montberg, the middle-aged San Francisco swinger whose story it is. An ""arriviste who was always on the brink of arriving,"" poor Hutch can find decency only in death, his own. For throughout this breezy tale, the West Coast Willy Loman sinks into lots of ""deep shit,"" from which only a miracle will save him. Instead, this jogging, psychob abbling entrepreneur conveniently kicks off from a heart attack before he brings his entire family down with him. BMW-driving Hutch, a dreamer and schemer of self-deluding proportions, keeps a bad real-estate investment afloat with mob-borrowed money. When Ray Aratunian, his loan shark, threatens his own kind of foreclosure, Hutch turns to his hard-working brother as a last resort, and the latter, despite his wife's better instincts, cosigns a new loan with Aratunian's ""Vecchio Investments."" Dan, a plain-living cabbie and would-be writer, can barely make ends meet, even with his beleaguered wife's income as an inner-city schoolteacher. Moreover, his 17-year-old daughter, a voluptuous aspiring biker-babe, prefers her uncle Hutch, whose philosphy (""life is a festival"") conforms to her own pursuit of pleasure. Of course, sexy little Trish doesn't perceive the emptiness in Hutch's life, how his search for ""the right kind of tired blonde"" masks an inability to accept responsibility of any kind. Nor how his overextended, credit-financed quest for ""the best"" in everything threatens her own family's future. Gold exploits all the admittedly waning California trends for humor--experimental theater, food fads, punkers, joggers, and fitness freaks. That he manages to elicit a few laughs is proof of his slick, if superficial, style. Breezy entertainment, with some literary pretense, from an old pro.

Pub Date: April 25, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Donald Fine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION