Maternal Triangle

By R.Z. Sheppard

FOREVER PANTING

by PETER DE VRIES 274 pages. Little, Brown. $7.95. "Domesticity," Peter De Vries has said, "is an instinct--just like sex." So it is not surprising that most of his comic novels have been--in one way or another--about post-dishwashing tristesse. It is that pleasantly sad feeling that follows doing the right thing.

Stewart Smackenfelt seems incapable of doing anything else. He is, in fact, the most considerate character in all of De Vries' 17 novels. An intermittently employed actor, Smackenfelt begins his good works by servicing his id--his bestial Freudian self, whom he calls Blodgett. It lusts after Ginger Truepenny, who is not exactly Smackenfelt's mother-in-law, but close enough. She is the aunt who raised his orphaned wife Dolly, who spends most of her time writing plays. By such tasteful amendments does De Vries remove the curse of incest without seriously weakening the underpinning of his situation.

Ginger is no old bag. She maintains her excellent figure with exercise and ensures a degree of mental stimulation with such ticklish malapropisms as "He's quite a piston," "defoliating" virgins, and (referring to bisexuals) "AM-FM." When Dolly divorces Smackenfelt for Zap Spontini, an advertising man and lousy Sunday painter, Blodgett is rewarded. Smackenfelt marries his aunt-in-law and settles down to an excellent relationship, sexually and otherwise. Ginger pays the bills, leaving the unemployed actor time to sharpen his theatrical skills.

With Blodgett domesticated, Smackenfelt seems to develop an unnatural desire to be helpful. Dressed as a priest for a part in a play, he wanders into an automat between shows and starts dispensing spiritual advice to a woman at his table. During a brief job at a large corporation, he impersonates a vice president and summarily fires those who seem unhappy in their work, He is finally caught and dismissed for "malversation of coffee break."

De Vries is not dealing with what is loosely called an identity crisis. As a professional actor, Smackenfelt knows how to get totally immersed in his roles. He is intelligent and sharply aware of how religious ideas about good and evil, have become psychoanalytic attempts to treat the troubled soul as if it were a badly adjusted carburetor. He also remains deeply attached to his ex-wife Dolly. When she runs into difficulties with her play about Sir Walter Raleigh, Smackenfelt enriches her script with research and a model characterization of Raleigh that almost leaves the actor with a permanent Devonshire accent.

But his most chivalrous act is to spare the feelings of Zap Spontini, who has painted an abstract mural on

Smackenfelt's wall. Seeing Zap's raw splotches through a window, the police spread the word that the house has been vandalized. Rather than have Zap hurt by the truth, Smackenfelt wrecks his own house.

As usual, De Vries' comedy depends on pushing ridiculous situations to sublime limits. On the surface, Forever Panting is an inversion of old mother-in-law jokes. At a richer level, the book is a graceful joke on the myth that our natures are totally controlled by the hairy, grunting id. As a liberated Calvinist, though an unreconstructed Christian gentleman, De Vries illustrates through Stewart Smackenfelt that swinging, second-generation Freudians may have suffered a more entertaining fate. It is entirely possible that their Blodgetts will be cuckolded by their better-natured superegos.

R.Z. Sheppard

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