Rating: 
Summary: OK
Review: hmmm....
"Face Time" follows the story of presidential speechwriter Ben Krause as his career ascends, unfortunately with help from his girlfriend--she has an affair with the president. In light of the Lewinsky scandal, I can see how a satire may be appropriate, but this was somewhat "light". The characters were quite implausible for the circumstances, especially Ben and Gretchen(the girlfriend/mistress). It seemed that Tarloff was struggling to reveal the plot, and what he did state was especially brief. This book came off as a "summer reading" type, though I found it difficult to sit on the beach with a dictionary in my shorts. The narrator's vocabulary was pathetically and unconvincingly immense...not to mention placed in long, unnecessary sentences. Of course this is my opinion, and if anyone wants to support some new, pretentious author go right ahead...but I want no more face time.
Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: hmmm....
"Face Time" follows the story of presidential speechwriter Ben Krause as his career ascends, unfortunately with help from his girlfriend--she has an affair with the president. In light of the Lewinsky scandal, I can see how a satire may be appropriate, but this was somewhat "light". The characters were quite implausible for the circumstances, especially Ben and Gretchen(the girlfriend/mistress). It seemed that Tarloff was struggling to reveal the plot, and what he did state was especially brief. This book came off as a "summer reading" type, though I found it difficult to sit on the beach with a dictionary in my shorts. The narrator's vocabulary was pathetically and unconvincingly immense...not to mention placed in long, unnecessary sentences. Of course this is my opinion, and if anyone wants to support some new, pretentious author go right ahead...but I want no more face time.
Rating: 
Summary: Power+Seduction+Ambition+Romance+Witty Repartee = FACE TIME!
Review: How curious......looking at a presidential affair through the lens of the guy who's being cuckolded by the President! What shines through isn't the tawdriness of the affair (a la Monica), but the zinging emotions that the characters experience, from the elated high of new love to the distressing darkness of things gone wrong. Mix in the spice of politics, and you've got FACE TIME.If you enjoy being totally absorbed by spirited fictional yarns, don't mind a story that hits close to home, at times, and are up for more than a few good laughs....then....you'll love reading FACE TIME. Get it!!! (Reportedly, this is Tarloff's first novel....I hope he'll keep them coming!!!)
Rating:
Summary: Washington Outsider Taken In By Tale
Review: I admit it. I'm a Washington Outsider! Frequently, after reading media accounts of events in our Nation's Capital, I find myself wondering: What on Earth is going on there? What in the heck are these people thinking? I may have found some answers. Face Time gave me a glimpse of what is must be like to live among the Insiders....so many, junkies for power. The relationship between Ben and Gretchen drew me in. The author aptly captured many of the emotions that are part and parcel of personal relationships.....the exhilaration, joy, angst and heartache. But what really kept the pages flipping for me was the curious way in which power snaked its way through the lives, thinking and emotions of the characters. Fortunately, Tarloff gives us an engaging and accessible narrator, Ben, to guide us on this wacky ride. And even better, the story is punctuated with wildly hilarious dialogue and a heady choice of words! After reading Face Time, I know I don't want to go there (DC), but I really enjoyed the read!
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant enough book to take along for a weekend trip
Review: I bought this book based on the two hundred and forty some odd pages it contains with the intent to read it on a long weekend trip to Mexico, which is exactly what I did. I found it to be entertaining and I enjoyed and appreciated the way the author explained his point of view about his relationship with his girlfriend while she carried on with the President. I think the writer sometimes tried to over-impress with his vocabulary and I share the opinion of other readers that the trip to Paris episode was disjointed and pointless. I'd say it's a good, short read. A good trip book. I could recommend it. I still have difficulty believing that any rational man, like our subject Ben, could stay in a relationship so long knowing his gal was carrying on with any man, even the Pres. I would have kicked her out of the condo upon my first suspicion. Also, Chris, the English journalist, spoke with Ben in some kind of contrived, snooty and goofy style that probably no Englishman in his right mind would speak like. Buy it in paperback, when it's cheaper, and take it out of town with you to read on a trip, like I did. It's perfect for that.
Rating: 
Summary: Rational adults in an irrational time.
Review: I liked this book for the simple reason that it assumed both main characters were intelligent. Sure it is difficult to understand infidelity: but the premise that it is infidelity with the President put a whole new spin on it. I loved how you saw what both characters were going through, and the "adult" conclusion. I could see the viewpoint of both people, and understood how difficult it would be to say no to the president, and how the boyfriend could agree with that too.
Rating: 
Summary: It takes talent to make a reader hate a book this much.
Review: I loved Tarloff's other book so much I ran out and got this one as soon as I finished "the man who wrote the book." It's hard to believe how much I wanted to tear the pages out of this one and throw it in the garbage... it takes talent to draw emotions out of a reader like that! However, who wants to feel that way for an entire novel? Not me, surely. I did stick with it and finished it just for the obvious ending - why? I dunno. It was like using your tongue to play with a painful cavity page after page after page. It is a valid question in another review I saw here: is it tarloff's story? Why else would someone draw out such horrible pain with so little comic relief except as some form of payback? It just made me sad.
Rating:
Summary: It takes talent to make a reader hate a book this much.
Review: I loved Tarloff's other book so much I ran out and got this one as soon as I finished "the man who wrote the book." It's hard to believe how much I wanted to tear the pages out of this one and throw it in the garbage... it takes talent to draw emotions out of a reader like that! However, who wants to feel that way for an entire novel? Not me, surely. I did stick with it and finished it just for the obvious ending - why? I dunno. It was like using your tongue to play with a painful cavity page after page after page. It is a valid question in another review I saw here: is it tarloff's story? Why else would someone draw out such horrible pain with so little comic relief except as some form of payback? It just made me sad.
Rating:
Summary: An example of how connections can get you published
Review: Not witty, not hilarious, not funny (wickedly or otherwise), not believable, not riveting, not thoughtful, not superbly written, not razor-sharp, not savvy, and definitely not worth reading. The prose is plodding. The characters are utterly unsympathetic and unbelievable. The references to Desmond Morris, Casablanca, etc., are pitiful in their cut and paste awkwardness. And somehow, the plot manages to be both contrived and predictable. Jim Lehrer, Michael Lewis, Larry Gelbart, Judy Woodruff, Gail Sheehy, and Christopher Hitchens should all be ashamed of lending their good names to the promotion of this dreary dreary book, regardless of how good a friend Tarloff or his wife might be. The only one of of the group that came close to the truth in her jacket blurb was Woodruff. If in calling it the "ultimate Washington novel," she's referring to the fact that in D.C, too often who you know is more important than what you know, then she's right on the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Mirabella magazine review (January issue)
Review: Now that Face-Time is out, buy a copy, because it is a briskly paced tale of randy Washingtonhijinks with the added benefit of good dialogue and likeable characters (try finding one of those in the Starr Report)....Tarloff, who was a pro-bono speechwriter for Clinton, writes very knowingly about power. Face-Time makes for much better reading than Starr's ouevre, and I'll tell you anothe rthing: Smart, sexy Gretchen has it all over Monica.
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