'Face-Time'
by Erik Tarloff Crown, $23
Perhaps it is a measure of how far we have come that an entertaining, even funny, novel could be written about illicit sexual affairs in the White House and seem entirely plausible. "Face-Time" answers questions confronting the nation for over a year: How could a seemingly brilliant president have done something so unbelievably stupid? And what on earth could any young woman who agreed to such an arrangement have been thinking?
In "Face-Time," rising-star political activist Benjamin Krause falls madly in love with beautiful Gretchen Burns, while they work together in the whirlwind of presidential candidate Charles Sheffield's campaign. When their candidate moves into the White House, both win positions in the new administration: Ben writing speeches and Gretchen to the less prestigious Office of Social Affairs. Things are grand - although Ben does feel bad for Gretchen's lack of presidential access - until Ben discovers that Gretchen has "access" of a different sort: She is sleeping with the president. Although Gretchen swears her love for Ben, she refuses to end the affair. Caught by the flattering attention of the most powerful man in the world, she is unable to turn away from the ultimate "face-time" with the president. She even accuses Ben of being as jealous of her access to the resident - the ultimate measuring stick of power in the Capitol - as he is of her sexual betrayal.
Ben's stock rises within the White House with promotions and an endless stream of invitations to state dinners, to the White House theater and to other highly prized social events. But, cuckolded by the ultimate alpha male while at the same time committed to Gretchen, Ben is unable to break it off with Gretchen or quit his position at the pinnacle of power.
The climax of the novel - so to speak - occurs on the Truman Balcony of the White House, where Ben is invited by the president after a dinner. Sweating in the heat, the two talk quietly overlooking Washington. The president compares himself to Churchill and defends Churchill's personal shortcomings on the grounds of his monumental contributions. "Maybe he needs to be judged on a different scale," he suggests and then launches into a summary of the various crises around the globe that demand his own attention. When Ben rejects the analogy, the president admits to the affair and urges Ben to get over it. Ben rejects the advice, the president's comparisons and the notion that those in such positions have any entitlement to such sexual liberties.
The whole novel could have been written for this one confrontation, with the president defending his supposed right to have his way with the women surrounding him and, perhaps more satisfying, his own speech writer talking back. The novel does resolve the triangle, but the denouement is best left undisclosed here.
Written by Erik Tarloff, who himself has worked with the Clinton White House speech-writing staff and is married to Laura D'Andrea Tyson, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during Clinton's first term, the novel is full of careful detail that brings realism to the writing.
"Face-Time" is an intriguing, thoughtful and sometimes very funny look at an issue that has captured the nation for over a year. The novel provides a useful vehicle to examine how those in powerful positions seem so often to claim the right to take liberties with sexual boundaries that bind the rest of us - and just how easy that sometimes is.
