Novel Takes A Noble Look At Lower Class

March 9, 1986|By Reviewed by Cheryl Hiers, Special to The Sentinel

Despite its title, this first novel by Richard Krawiec has very little to do with condominiums or the middle-class people who inhabit them. Rather, it is a story about the other side of the American dream, a look at those who never had anything and never will.

Artie, a petty thief, and Jolene, a mud wrestler, take up with one another in a struggle to find self-respect, security and love. They're both broke, uneducated and touchingly naive about how the world works. When Jolene receives an invitation to view a time-share condominium, the two begin to imagine that the visit will turn their lives around. A possible cash prize of $750 seems like a fortune to them.

Their ensuing trip, made in a borrowed Rambler station wagon, puts in ironic juxtaposition the haves and have-nots of the world. The result is comic, in a dark way. Indeed, it is the tone of outrageous, colloquial humor that keeps the story moving.

The author's sympathy for Artie and Jolene is deep and well-considered. He shows that it's not laziness or lack of gumption that impoverish them, but an ignorance of the world and life that is so profound it is crippling. It never occurs to Jolene that feeding Dandy Handy, her 2-year-old son, only Pepsi and peanut butter, or leaving him alone for hours at a time, might not be good for him. The neglect is perpetrated so innocently, so unconsciously that our sympathy for the mother is as great as that for the child.

Jolene and Artie seem like children themselves, standing empty-handed before a spectacle of wealth -- houses and food and cars. ''How do you get it,'' Jolene asks at one point, ''I don't understand how people get there. I mean, you had to go through something, right? College or something?''

Whatever it is that you have to ''go through'' to become middle class, the author makes it clear that Artie and Jolene were left so far behind so long ago that it is impossible for them to catch up. In flashbacks, we see how her father repeatedly raped Jolene as a child. And when Artie visits his middle-aged mother, she tells him what has been true all his life: ''Artie,'' she says, ''you ain't got no options. You never had none, and you won't tomorrow neither.''

Yet, despite their poverty and ignorance, Artie and Jolene emerge as plucky, courageous characters who try whatever they can to improve their lives. It would be hard to imagine their trying any harder, a fact that makes their slide into disaster all the more poignant.

Although Time Sharing sometimes lapses into a kind of juvenile fascination with the grotesque, it is worth reading for the quality of compassion that illuminates the characterizations of Artie and Jolene. The writing lacks any great complexity or fine nuances of language. Indeed, it is downright crude in places, but it gets the job done. There are a few touches of quiet eloquence, as when Artie tries to explain his shiftlessness: ''All my life, I go to put my feet forward and they go off to the sides somewheres.''

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