DUPONT CIRCLE

Kafka-Gibbons (Love Enter, 1993) schematically addresses one of life’s big subjects, marriage—in this case, a gay union and the potential nuptials of a young woman and a much older man.

The author sets the scene, in Washington’s hip Dupont Circle area, with all the right detail, from trendy bookshops and restaurants to lifestyle accessories, but his characters are merely big pegs on which he hangs appropriate labels. Their carefully created personas are ultimately flat. They’re also smugly p.c., which makes whatever they’re discussing sound more like preaching than talking points. Wealthy Jon Allard, a history professor, lives with Peter, a novelist, and with Nita, Jon’s seven-year-old niece—an annoyingly cute little girl, with her own gallery where she sells her “artwork.” Nita is the daughter of Jon’s troubled sister, Valerie, whose new baby, Sam, soon joins them after Valerie tries to smother him. Peter stays home and takes care of the kids. He’d like to be legally married to Jon so they could properly adopt them. And help may be at hand. Jon’s father, Bailey, a federal judge (modeled, we’re told, on Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas) is not only sympathetic to their dilemma but about to hear a case involving a gay couple, married in another state (read: Vermont), who are contesting the IRS charge that for tax-purposes they are single. Wealthy Bailey, a 67-year-old widower, lives in a roomy townhouse just off Dupont Circle, and when his family worries about him being alone, he advertises for a student to share his digs. Twentysomething third-year law student Louisa Robbins applies, and the two are soon smitten. Still, Bailey worries about the age gap. After the gay-marriage case is argued, with generous dollops of legalese, Bailey starts writing his own opinion—a decision that will also affect Jon and Peter.

A lively subject rendered lifeless and dull.