Two Married PronounsnHerbert Gold: He/She; ArbornHouse; New York.nby Christina MurphynH e is the devoted, if somewhat infantilenand dependent, husband whondoes not want to see his marriage end.nShe is the post-women’s lib wife, insecurenin the security she has known,nseeking fulfillment in a nebulously definednfreedom, sure of only one thing:nmarriage and motherhood have trappednher and drained her of her essence. He,nrather than accept the most rudimentarynprinciple of emotional fulfillment —nwhich is: if you can’t have what younwant, learn to want something else—nprefers, instead, to plead, beg, bargainnand argue his wife into explaining tonhim what has happened to their marriagenand why She no longer loves him.nShe, aware that in any relationship thenone who loves the least can manipulatenthe most, uses his need to her advantage,ncoyly playing games with his ego,nseducing him, rejecting him, comfortingnhim, despising him, throwing barbs ofnspite and blame which he willingly acceptsnand seldom returns. In all. Shenis the consummate game player, a deftncraftsman of control who knows hernadversary well, especially his needs andnweaknesses.nThe main characters of this novel remainnnameless throughout. By the samentoken, they remain largely unknown.nAn abstract He and an abstract She,nfighting out the power game inherentnin any relationship predicated upon thenvulnerability of meeting emotionalnneeds. It is the enigma of marriage itselfnthat Gold goes after, an understandingnof the psychological nexusnwhich binds two lives together as one.nHad Gold been successful in his pursuit,nHe/She would have been a mostnDr. Murphy teaches English at MississippinIndustrial College.n•>*>;;nChronicles of Caltiircninsightful and revealing novel. As it is,nit is a novel which skirts and circlesncentral issues, contents itself with repetitionnand predictability, and never risesnmuch above monodimensional charactersnseeking and espousing nonsolutionsnto their problems.nIt is tempting to say that this novelnfails because of the slimness of its subjectnmatter—marriage in the modernnage is, after all, perceived by many as anvacuous experience. But Bergman,nAlbee and many others have managednto make convincing portraits of contemporarynlife from the emotional wastelandnof love/hate marital relationships.nIt is tempting, too, to blame the failurenof He/She solely upon the weakness ofnits characterizations. The characters innthis novel do not grow, change or develop.nThey are what they are from beginningnto end, and what they are, unfortunately,nis often not even sufficientnto hold the reader’s attention, let alonenmerit his concern. Throughout, He remainsnfawning and childlike, seeking tonreturn, at any cost, to the security ofnwife/mother and the nurturing comfortnof home. She, throughout, remains ambivalentnand catty, the type of womannmen delight in labeling as castrating.nAs He grows weaker, more dependentnand needy, She grows stronger, morenaloof and independent. He demands explanations;nShe dispenses smoke screensnand empty platitudes. He wants her tonstay and never leave him; She, however,nis willing to throw him away, but notnto let him go. These struggles and conflictsnwithin the characters themselvesneventually culminate in a series of endlessnand repetitive dialogues in whichnexplanations are sought but never prof­nnnfered, and in which each character seeksnto be known but is never fully understood.nIf the dialogues themselves (whichnare all variations on a theme and streakednwith the monotony of people who talkna great deal but say nothing) weren’tnenough to kill this novel, the absurditynand banality of the cast of minor charactersnwould be. Foremost in ridiculousnessnamongst the minor characters isnthe daughter He and She share in common,nCynthia. Cynthia makes very fewndirect appearances in the novel, butnwhen she does, she is capable of reducingnthe novel’s believability level tonzero. Only Cynthia can ride with hernfather across town and at one intersectionncall him “Poopoopants Daddy” andnat another dispense philosophical insightsninto her father’s dilemma, whichncontains the core of the novel’s themesnand the sum total of its conclusions.nCynthia is followed in order of absurdndescent by Paul and Paula, two nonprofessional,nself-appointed marriage counselorsnwho, for thirty dollars an hour,nspeak in Gestaltese and manage to obscureneven the most simple rudimentsnof common sense. He is disgusted withnboth Paul and Paula, but apparentlynlearns no lesson, for soon He isnenmeshed in the arms of Jehane, annaging Age of Aquarius groupie whonspeaks of transcendence, chakras,nkarma and the New Age coming, whilenartfully seducing him in saunas and hotntubs. While He retreats into the gibberishnof misdirected Zen, She fares nonbetter in seeking solace and suitors,nmanaging to snare for herself Hal, thenpredictable beefcake lover with an animal’snintelligence and an animal’s appetitenfor sex. He, of course, is chastisednfor being jealous of Hal and is instructednthat the times they are a’changing fornthe expression of women’s sexual needs.nWhen She learns that He has becomeninvolved with Jehane, She, of course,n