Men Without Dates and Slam!.

by Jane Willis

MEN WITHOUT DATES. The place is a seedy country-western bar in lower Manhattan where two young firemen, Sal and Murph, are carousing. They are long-time friends who find themselves at a point of crisis: Murph is about to enter a loveless shotgun marriage and resign from the Fire Department; and Sal, who once saved his buddy's life in the line of duty, is trying to do so again. But Sal, an insatiable womanizer who is as baffled by his conquests as he is drawn to them, is the eternal adolescent and hardly the one to persuade Murph to forego his decision to "do the right thing" and settle down to a safer, if drabber, line of work. Their debate is complicated by the intrusion of the bartender, an arrogant and paranoid bully who would just as soon fight with his customers as serve them and whose clash with Sal helps instigate the uneasy, but infinitely touching truce that brings the action to its poignant close. (3 men.) SLAM! The scene is the men's room of a dance club in Manhattan's Bowery section. Two young punk rockers, Linc and Mel, both high-school students from Queens, are engaged in an energetic conversation about girls and dancing the two things of most significance in their present lives. Both are in revolt against parental authority, as evidenced by their outlandish outfits and pointed remarks, but both are also touchingly concerned about their problematic futures a dilemma that Linc has decided to deal with by enlisting in the Marines. His announcement shakes Mel, to whom the armed forces are another aspect of a drab establishment that, he thought, he and Linc were determined to resist. And while their carefree banter and zany playfulness resume, there is now a difference anunspoken but sobering awareness that, young as they are, "life" is catching up with them and things will never be quite the same again. (2 men.)

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the goodreads data base.

Jane Willis has worked extensively overseas as an English teacher, trainer and writer. She recently retired from Aston University, Birmingham, UK, where she taught English and tutored for 12 years on their Distance Learning Masters in TESOL & TESP programmes, working with teachers world-wide. She still travels widely as an ELT consultant and enjoys attending international conferences.

Her prize-winning books include English for Primary Teachers, a handbook of activities and classroom language, co-authored with Mary Slattery, (Oxford University Press) which has won two awards and been translated into six languages, and Teachers Exploring Tasks in English Language Teaching, co-edited with Corony Edwards, (Palgrave Macmillan) which won the British Council Innovations Award in 2006.