About Schmidt by Louis Begley Jr. is a strange book.  It is entertaining and annoying and disconcerting and not quite plausible. It is full of caricature, both of characters and of plot. Uptight man loses wife, then daughter, then house — but after vacation by self on island, returns to another kind of island to find stalker but also sex kitten and joy, and house, again.

There is little to admire about Schmidt, retired white-shoe lawyer, recent widower, and man in free fall.  He drinks too much, and pigeonholes too quickly, he is an anti-Semite, unfaithful husband, and snob, and at age sixty, he thinks with his —well, not his brain.  Not that a man of forty would be excused for doing so, nor a woman for doing so with her non-brain but still important body part.  Anyone at any age can fall into the trap of sex enthrallment: that doesn’t mean they should. And why did Schmidt have to be such a push-over?  Was he seeking his own destruction?  He contemplates suicide at the beginning of the book: is taking up with a seemingly psycho girl who must have learned her sex talk from the 900 numbers and has two past lovers obsessing with her every move a good idea?  Or a death wish?

Fear not.  In this book there is no retribution for bad misdeeds: screw on, screw over, and don’t worry about it. Everyone suffers in the end, get it when and while you can.  Schmidt himself, after attending the wedding anniversary party of friends leaves depressed: “This was just another catered party, given by a nice couple whose lives had not yet been broken.  Their time would come.“   He thinks his luck has run out, other than the sex romping kitten waiting  (panting) for him at home (and how long will it be before she figures out how old he is?) but the ride home is just the beginning of Schmidt getting everything he wants: babe, booze, and bucks.

Begley is a prolific writer and covers the world of WASPy lawyers well.  His heroes (anti-heroes all) are incapable of true introspection, too wrapped up as they are in appearances, good manners, defined rules, and  members-only clubs.  Begley pries them open for us (really spreads their legs, literally and figuratively in this novel), giving us a good laugh along with a good look at the inner-workings of a warped world.