Fast Friends

About the Book

FAST FRIENDS is the story of Dr. Ernest Berger, a college English professor, and his pal, Bobby Taylor, a tennis player and playboy, that takes place up in the woods of Vermont. The novel would have to be considered a picaresque, a tale of rogues and rascals and a recounting of their various adventures and incidents. It is a series of incidents and episodes connected chronologically, with little or no motivation or complication of plot: it is simply a realistic unfolding of many lives, their trials and tribulations and their ultimate redemption, and salvation. The book is about Dr. Berger, a frustrated, married English professor and poet, who is totally bored with teaching the rich progeny of America’s finest families up in the green mountains of Vermont and longs to go out to Hollywood and become a scriptwriter and live the glamorous tabloid existence that he has dreamed of. He loves his wife and young sons, but is seduced by the flesh of many a young, eager and confused coed. And, of course, part of his dream is to be rich and cavort with Hollywood stars, and leave the drab world of teaching behind. The catalyst, as it turns out, is Mr. Bobby Taylor, a swinging, handsome, down to earth Vermonter, who is a stark contrast to all the snobby, snooty writers and artist types that people the world of the infamous Endington College in southern Vermont. To Dr. Berger, his wife and young children, Bobby is a breath of fresh air. Then things begin to unravel, and the dream goes through various cycles of destruction and disruption. His odyssey finally comes full circle as Dr. Berger learns many lessons about love, and loss and battles desperately to regain the idyllic life that he gave away for a hollow fantasy.

About the Author

Stuart Kaufman teaches and writes, and lives quietly with his wife and two sons in Merrick, NY. He is an avid reader of novels and poems. He has three books of poetry to his credit: Four Fingers Showing, a chapbook, A Return To Black and White, a four poet monograph, and The Ultimate Cigar, with an introduction by John Ashbery. This is his first novel.