By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview
“Going Together” is a romantic novel of a different sort. Two dysfunctional people relating to the world makes for a cute premise. Author Arnold Grossman has well developed characters that really resonate.
This is the common love plot with a twist. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy regains girl. This story could be looked on as black humor.
The main characters are Paul Malouf, an advice columnist for The Los Angeles Times. He can’t get his life together after a divorce. His wife, Sam, left him for a tennis pro at the club.
“But he’s sixteen years old.” “Oh, please. You’re just jealous. He’s twenty.”
“And you’re thirty seven. When you were graduating high school, he was sucking on his mother’s breasts — not yours”
Let’s just say Paul’s life is a mess. The other main character is Helen Fair. She is the owner of Helen of Troy Hair Salon in Beverly Hills. She has lost her husband at an early age from cancer. “My husband was too young to die. At thirty four” She is leery of commitment as a result.
There are the secondary characters of Milton, Paul’s boss, and Harvey Stone, the co-worker with Helen, who is putting on the act of being gay in order to attract the clientele to Helen of Troy. When Helen asks why he pretends, the reply is, “Get serious. I’d lose most of my customers. What self-respecting client of ours would entrust her precious hair to the hands of a straight man?” He also acts as the gatekeeper to Helens’ love life.
As the novel opens both Paul and Helen are standing close to the edge of the platform well beyond the yellow caution line in the Metro Center subway station. They are on opposite sides of the platform. After the train goes by, Paul says to Helen, “If you’re a jumper, you need to work on your commitment.”
Later that evening Helen attempts to jump off Santa Monica Pier but doesn’t because “Do you have any idea how filthy that water is?” she says to Paul. At one point Helen reveals to Paul when she is asked about her family, “I’ve become a frequent buyer at Forest Lawn. I might be close to a free trip.”
They start dating, or at least something that resembles a date. It takes a while but Paul is able to get a date with Helen to tour the city in a helicopter piloted by a near blind guy.
And that is just the beginning. Complications are put in their way, both major and minor. The major one is Paul’s returning ex -wife.
This story is told from the third person, multiple view point. It may not have worked as well if it were told from the first person.
The author, Grossman, has spent some time in Los Angeles and has worked for network television. He presently lives in Colorado. He has also written humor pieces for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News as well as articles for Redbook and Good Housekeeping. This is his first attempt at fiction.
I recommend this for anyone who likes a fun read.
Christmas will soon be here. DANE ROBERT SWANSON would like to wish the best to you and yours this season. Contact him at
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 22, 2007. Read the original PDF.