Up, Down & Sideways

Patton utilizes the strengths he showcases in Life Between Wars (see review above) and works them into a much more assured novel. A 1980s version of the prodigal son parable set in WASPy New England, Up, Down & Sideways might also have aptly been titled Dollars and Sense. It's narrated by Philip Halsey, a decidedly unlikable scion of the old-money Stallses (""My family is an old New England conglomerate, the getting of whose fortune we don't discuss""). A successful investor and womanizer, Philip treats everyone shabbily--clients, colleagues, women and especially his restrained and patient father. In its comic illumination of Philip's upper-middle-class myopia and white-bread depravity, the novel is reminiscent of The Bonfire of the Vanities, though more introspective and with a greater care for character than for sociology. Patton has a delicate touch with metaphor, making the financial language of investment, yield, risk and disclosure resonate with the psychic and moral terrain traversed by Philip. The portrait of Philip's sober, responsible father, who spent a lifetime hiding his Jewish heritage to maintain his acceptance within the bosom of the Stallses, is excruciating. We watch as Philip, a young man of considerable advantages and talent, violating all sense of fairness, squanders everything in an extended paroxysm of debauchery, extravagance and selfishness. Philip is a two-timing lover, an abortion-promoting father (""the sperm was mine"") and a thankless child. The story proves humorous as Philip (reader cheering) gets exactly what he deserves and is forced to struggle mightily with issues of identity and manhood and, in doing so, earns some glimmer of humanity and compassion. Patton pulls it all together here, marshaling his considerable talent into a fluid, ironic comedy of morals. (May)