cover image Dreams of Long Lasting

Dreams of Long Lasting

Mark Medoff. Warner Books, $19.95 (466pp) ISBN 978-0-446-51597-9

Set in the early 1970s in cities from California to New York, this fast-paced, funny, often poignant debut novel from playwright and screenwriter Medoff ( Children of a Lesser God ) has as its protagonist an iconoclastic but troubled young man. Jacob Landau divides his affections among his fiancee, a Miami Beach ``princess'' who turns out to be far more savvy than he ever anticipated; his former lover, a young actress tormented by her dark past; and his difficult, distant father, who fled the Holocaust. Meanwhile he is struggling toward success as a playwright and nourishing dreams of fame and immortality. Medoff's memorable characters are not always likable but they never fail to engage. His snappy dialogue rattles down the page, revealing personality without sacrificing the ring of offhand conversation. In the novel's middle section, he makes an abrupt but hilarious foray into satire with a send-up of Miami Beach's Jewish gentry. The scene of Jake and Sandra's wedding--complete with cloud machine--echoes the i took out ''similar'' here; redundant with ``echoes''/eed bash in Goodbye, Columbus . Though Medoff wins points for adroit plotting, the book suffers from an overly dramatic and sentimental denouement ; that does not, however, reduce its entertainment value. (June)