Two to Tango (First Edition)

With his girlfriend demanding a baby, and 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 the uncertainties of existence

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.

Shticks and moans: the slight, familiar midlife crisis of 38- year-old actor Benjamin West--an overgrown adolescent who can't make the Big Commitment to his girlfriend. The one somewhat distinctive element in Ben's half-jokey, half-maudlin narrative is that he recently helped his ailing father to commit suicide (pills and a plastic bag). But first-novelist Pearlman doesn't treat this subject with any depth or nuance--it's just one more thing for Ben to kvetch about. And the other bits and pieces here are standard, vaguely dated fare. Ben, who's had success on a TV series, wonders whether or not to audition for a new Mamet play on Broadway. He tries to pick up a girl in a bar with such suave lines as ``I love the way your skirt hugs your ass.'' He recalls his Brooklyn childhood, masturbation, early sexual experiences. He visits the house where his parents lived-- and imagines that the dead mother and father have returned for a cute-sentimental chat with him. He learns that his brother in Chicago has testicular cancer. And, primarily, he resists pressure from girlfriend Jessica to settle down, grow up, get married, make a baby--until intimations of mortality finally (in a stick-on happy ending) end Ben's serious case of arrested development. Pearlman comes up with a few bright lines, and the show-biz atmosphere occasionally rings true. Otherwise: a limp mixture of generic Jewish-family material, weak X-rated stand-up comedy (with a misogynistic edge), and unpersuasive coming-of-age dramatics. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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.