Kirkus Reviews QR Code
LOVE, ROGER by Charles Webb

LOVE, ROGER

By

Pub Date: May 5th, 1969
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

One doubts whether anyone would deny that the witty Mr. Nichols, the engaging Mr. Hoffman and the seductive Miss Bancroft really made The Graduate from just a quirky little novel in which Benjamin mumbled flatly declarative negative sentences along with interrogative ""Whats."" Love, Roger, with somewhat more verbal extension (in fact one of the funnier scenes is one in which he talks constantly, unburdening his soul, while a prostitute is performing with the rest of him) is still a very minimal novel. It really consists of just a few scenes and occasional stage directions. The first of these is when he is trapped in Filene's (Boston) with a charming unknown, Melinda, after closing hours, and they spend the night there. Melinda disappears; Beth (from Wisconsin who wants to marry him--then settles for losing her virginity in or behind the filing cabinets of his office or so it seems) reappears; at the end the three of them are renting a house together. . . . Even though Mr. Webb has probably written this with one eye cocked at the screen, it doesn't seem as likely although after the success of the first, another interrogative ""Who"" becomes academic. Particularly with lots of valentines from the publisher.