Alex Witchel's new novel, \Me Times Three,"" opens and closes with tragedy. But the face of that tragedy changes dramatically from beginning to end. The beginning embraces heartache and entertainment as Sandra Berlin finds out that her fianc??, Bucky, is engaged to two other women. She finds comfort and escape in her long-time college friend, Paul Romano. Sandra and Paul build their own ""Will and Grace"" relationship, full of shopping trips, dinners out and occasional weekend getaways.
These pages pave a road that most readers assume leads to Sandra'semotional growth and revenge on Bucky's betrayal. The novel continues this lighthearted path throughout half of the story, filled with Sandra's torturous blind dates and horror stories from her job as editor of Jolie magazine.
Suddenly, the story turns from lighthearted and entertaining to sad and eye opening. Sandra finds out that her friend Paul has full-blown AIDS. He reveals that he not only engaged in unprotected sex with countless male partners, but also injected himself with a variety of drugs. She watches him deteriorate within months. Images of Paul's green-tinted skin, bloodstained pants and skeleton-like body fill the last half of the novel. Surprisingly, Sandra seems untouched by Paul's condition as she manages to fit in her own weekend flings between her visits with Paul.
The novel loses its thread after the first half. The second half forgets Bucky and instead centers on her friendship with Paul and a blooming romance with a Jolie! freelance writer. Witchel introduces characters in the first half of the novel that never appear again, and end up confusing the story more than adding to it.
Witchel sets her story in the '80s, although it is not apparent until the second half of the book, when Paul reveals that he has AIDS. She revives the stereotype that was characteristic of that era: HIV and AIDS were a gay man's disease. Although recent times have proven that people of all sexual orientations and genders could contract HIV, Witchel tries to validate the 80s stereotype in her novel.
Despite the fact that a larger proportion of gay men may have contracted HIV during the '80s, reviving this stereotype will only reinforce negative opinions of homosexuals. It is surprising that Witchel attempts to validate a stereotype in a novel published in 2002 that our society is trying to bury.
Except for the issue of AIDS, Witchel fails to build her characters with many of the 80s characteristics. She instead presents them as typical college graduates of our generation. It isn't until the latter half of the book that the reader feels a rewinding of time. Although Witchel's story is entertaining and touching, it lacks the details of an accurate 80s setting.
