Money, Love

Barkley's sweetly comic debut novel (following a collection of short stories, Circle View) is a coming-of-age story tied to the motif of American ambition and failure. Set in North Carolina in 1975 (in the aftermath of Nixon resignation), the theme is personified in the character of traveling salesman Roman Strickland, a kind of happy-go-lucky Willlie Loman. Narrator Gabe Strickland, Roman's 16-year-old son, has watched his family muddle through so many financial crises he no longer worries when his father blows a big assignment. Gabe knows that, somehow, his parents' love and Roman's tenacity will see them through. But when Roman lands in jail for refusing to take no for an answer, wife Gladys has finally had enough. Tired of the uncertainty of a salesman's paycheck, she bails Roman out, then simply bails, moving in with his brother (and arch rival) Dutch, a dependable, successful car dealer. The tale centers on Roman's extravagant, misguided attempts to win Gladys back, from a poetry contest rigged to ensure that Gladys will place first, to a successful traveling roadshow of Celebrity Death Cars, intended to impress Gladys, featuring Gabe dressed as James Dean and Dutch's beauty-queen ex-wife dressed as Jayne Mansfield. Roman believes that money equals love (the book's title comes from a Howlin' Wolf lyric that concludes ,""No money, no love""), and he's convinced Gladys will return once he's as rich as Dutch. Despite the eccentric cast of characters, it is Roman himself who emerges as the book's most iconic figure, always optimistic and always tragically behind the times. Gabe struggles to find his own equilibrium, somewhere between Roman's colorfully romantic philosophy and Dutch's sturdy pragmatism. Despite a tendency to draw his characters with broad strokes, predicting Gabe's choice to seek some middle ground between Roman and Dutch, Barkley's entertaining story provides humor and poignancy in equal measure. (July)