For Fans of Seinfeld-like Coincidences

By: Milton Stern

You have just broken up with your girlfriend who leaves you in a busy restaurant with no way home, a tough waitress dumps a drink in your lap for no reason, and now you have to walk home with a wet crotch. If that is not enough, while walking across a bridge, you witness a mob hit quite by accident. This is what happens to womanizer Stan Smith in Mike Vogel’s Isn’t That Bigamy.

But wait, there is more. The waitress turns out to be Asian undercover agent and lesbian, Becky Li, who is charged with the ungrateful task of posing as Stan’s wife in the witness protection program in Utah.

Through a series of events, witnessed from all points of view, Vogel takes us on an entertaining romp into fictional city, Tamarind, Utah, where Becky mistakenly takes Stan and where polygamy is not just practiced, it is the law. To attempt to blend in, Stan not only marries the mayor’s daughter, whose twin has an unhealthy obsession with her, he marries the town lesbian, who has more than an eye for Becky.

And if things are not messy enough, Becky is recognized by the murderer’s associate as she and Stan board the plane headed for Utah in the first place.

Vogel’s writing engages the reader through multiple accounts of the same events. Isn’t That Bigamy will also find a following in fans of Seinfeld, who enjoy a story that just snowballs into hell through a series of unfortunate coincidences.

The characters are brought to colorful life, with the exception of Stan, who remains nondescript throughout the novel. One would be hard pressed to remember Stan’s hair color, let alone his physical appearance.

However, Stan’s womanizing personality comes through loud and clear.

Isn’t That Bigamy is a light, enjoyable, summer read.