Book Review : Story of a Love Triangle Ends With Blunted Points

Tangled Up in Blue by Larry Duplechan (St. Martin’s Press: $16.95; 288 pages)

“Tangled Up in Blue” is so tangled up in a web of blurb-misrepresentation that it will be a wonder if it ever finds its real audience. On the other hand, this book is so primitively written, so cliche-ridden, that that might not be a total misfortune. That, in turn, brings up another question: Must sexual and sociological matters always be dealt with in the loftiest prose? Must ill-educated human beings be denied literature that speaks their own language?

Supposedly, this novel is about Maggie Sullivan, who, according to the blurb, has “been extraordinarily happily married for one year,” gets pregnant and then finds out that her husband is bisexual, and that his ex-lover, their current “best friend,” has just been diagnosed HIV positive. “Maggie’s crisis threatens to destroy both marriage and friendship, testing Maggie and Daniel’s love for each other.”. . . And so on.

But this book isn’t about Maggie at all. This is the story of Crockett, the “other man” in this triangle, and his love for Daniel (with whom he has great sex and a marvelous relationship).

Bad Luck With Men

This is also about Crockett’s unforgiving redneck mother, to whom he is a godless pervert, and about Crockett’s continuing bad luck with men who treat him thoughtlessly. Thus, when Crockett is diagnosed, he finds himself alone.

When Maggie (just after finding out she’s pregnant) also discovers that her husband and Crockett have been lovers, she’s just the tiniest bit pushed out of shape. No one has ever gotten around to telling her that her husband and their best friend have been erotically involved: The reader, especially a female reader, who might have bought this book, thinking it’s about Maggie, “an extraordinarily happily married person,” might expect to see some serious issues addressed here.

What about a wife who finds out that her husband has been bisexual all along? What about the fact that--since his lover has tested positive for the virus, and most physicians agree there can be up to a seven-year lead time before others test positive as well--her husband, she herself and especially her unborn baby are probably at high risk for AIDS? There are some knotty problems to be addressed.

What about the fact that Maggie has been deceived since the very beginning of this romance into marriage, and since the husband’s ex-lover is still their very best friend, and--given the nature of any love triangle--she has every reason to believe, or expect, or at least not be surprised by the possibility that Daniel and Crockett might once again become lovers, with all the danger that might imply? Given all these factors, one might justifiably expect a serious--if romantic--novel of ideas about sex, death, love, bisexuality.

Instead, this airheaded trio runs around like chickens with their heads cut off. All three of these characters hang out at their local gyms. Maggie teaches aerobics, and at the height of her sorrow, she gains five pounds ! Life here is limited to gyms, television and lasagna (which Crockett, naturally, cooks better than Maggie).

When Maggie finds out the truth about her husband and Crockett, she cries, of course, but she can’t focus her mind enough to figure out why: “She hurt--she wasn’t exactly sure why she hurt, but she hurt.” And later, it’s only “the pride of a contrary, foot-stamping child” that keeps her away from her husband (whose gay lover, remember, has tested HIV positive, and she’s pregnant.)

The writer here has a lot to answer for. When Crockett finds a healer who has painstakingly cured her own cancer with a macrobiotic diet, he offers her packaged chocolate-bit cookies: She chomps them right down. When Crockett wakes Daniel after a night of love, Daniel feels “sleepy and grumpy and possibly another dwarf or two.” The editor here must have been away on vacation. It’s too bad. Not only is the reader not served, the writer himself has been sabotaged. Someone should have called this stuff to his attention long before now.

Still, people who never think need books too. This one is for them, and that’s the bright side.