Indecision

August 1, 2005
Dwight B. Wilmerding, a feckless, 28-year-old college grad, stumbles upon an experimental drug to help him with his chronic inability to assert himself. He soon loses his tech support job and rashly jets off to South America in pursuit of an enigmatic, beautiful woman named. While Dwight's misadventures lead to some entertaining moments, the problem with this recording is simply that Frederic sounds much older than Dwight is supposed to be (dialogue crutches like "dude" and "like" don't ring true). Frederic is a good reader with a wry, sharp-edged delivery that works well with this type of material. His other characterizations are fine, and he shines in a memorable portrayal of Dwight's brash, commodities-trading father. The idea of treating the malaise of modern youth with pharmaceuticals is clever and conducive to several funny episodes, but Frederic's performance as the main character is a bit hard to swallow.

July 18, 2005
Dwight Wilmerding, the vacillating, down-market prepster protagonist of Kunkel's debut novel, gets fired from his low-level job at Pfizer and, with the lease running out on his hive-like Chambers Street boys-club apartment, lights out for Quito, Ecuador, where high school flame Natasha is holed up. Before this momentous undertaking, Dwight has been afflicted with chronic postcollegiate indecision, particularly in relationships: should he pursue a life with his quasi-girlfriend, Vaneetha? Start up again with Natasha? And what about his weird thing for his sister, Alice? As luck would have it, one of his roommates is a med student who turns Dwight on to Abulinix, an experimental new treatment for chronic indecision, which makes his South American jaunt very eventful indeed. A subtheme on the post-politicality of post-9/11 20-somethings gives the book some bite and surfaces most conspicuously in the form of Brigid, the Euroactivist who, along with the drug, brings Dwight clarity, and even hope. Annoying but accomplished, this entertaining book has screenplay written all over it, from the hot Dutch Natasha to the shambling cute Dwight—not to mention Harvard-educated, New York– literati Kunkel himself.