A Window Facing West

In this witty, though sometimes labored debut novel by short story writer Tarlton, middle-aged men are humorously, if unflatteringly, portrayed as horny, dissatisfied 1990s husbands chasing the long-lost and illusory sexual bliss of youth. Gatlin, a financial adviser in Baton Rouge, La., is celebrating his 47th birthday with a wife who knows him all too well, a couple of philandering pals who boast of their revived sexual prowess with a mysterious mistress they both unknowingly share and a wacky, do-gooder buddy who vainly tries to shake Gatlin out of his complacently morose fantasies and self-pity. Gatlin's birthday makes him the same age as his father was when he committed suicide, propelling the son into a masculine meltdown, ""a Chernobyl of the mind,"" as he worries endlessly about sex, his health, his appearance, his hair, his teeth and gums and his business. Though he also frets about his 24-year marriage to Sarah, and her residual sadness after many miscarriages and a stillbirth, his attempts to resume their stalled sex life are clumsy and insensitive. When Gatlin finally gets the courage to approach the woman he thinks his married friends are sleeping with, she rejects him so handily that his fear is reaffirmed, and he concludes that sex is ""God's favorite practical joke on middle-aged men."" A hilarious battle of wits between Gatlin and a pimple-faced grocery store checkout clerk and an incredibly nutty stage performance before the hardened convicts of the state prison's drama club energize this slim account. Tarlton's topic, the seemingly overdetermined connection between the male midlife crisis, sexual anxiety and fear of death, is familiar and not radically reconfigured here, although the characters' navel-gazing indulgences are alternately pathetic and earnest, tinged with humor and humility. The affecting denouement finds Gatlin no longer ""a crusty old bastard,"" as he and Sarah rescue their marriage from verbal jousting and Gatlin finally finds his place on the river of life. Agent, Maja Nikolic, Writers House. Selected for Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers program. (Oct.)