What would you do with a philandering husband? A lover who keeps you hidden in the figurative closet? A man who started molesting you when you were 16?

In the case of the characters of “5 Minutes and 42 Seconds,” a novel by gay Princeton student T.J. Williams, you retaliate by stealing the bastard’s money and turning him over to the feds.

Set in the home of a wealthy black family in Detroit, the novel’s title refers to how long it takes for Cameshia Douglass and her children to flush her husband’s drugs and hide his money after the authorities have been called. Her husband, however, has not inspired loyalty in Cameshia or his other nearest and dearest relatives. Their race to destroy him becomes the crux of the novel.

FASHAD, THE DRUG dealer in question whose name is often significantly mispronounced Façade, is an attractive coke dealer who, despite his long marriage to Cameshia, has had sexual relationships with a multitude of men.

Cameshia knows Fashad is cheating, but thinks the offending party is a woman. It’s not clear why the street-smart Cameshia wouldn’t also be able to discern that the man who never seemed interested in sex with her might not being having sex with another woman.

It’s explained that she has previously been with a man, Pie, who was gay and, in her reflections upon that relationship, she says that his lack of desire to have sex with her should have been more of a clue to his sexual orientation.

“I should have known then,” she says about the time Pie first refused to have sex with her. “It ain’t too many niggas that can reject this.”

If that is her self-reflection, it seems incongruous that she wouldn’t notice the same phenomena with Fashad.

Is Fashad on the “down low,” however? He doesn’t seem to be a closeted bisexual, but a closeted gay man.

The dialogue-heavy narrative builds quickly toward its surprising, sinuous climax. Williams writes succinctly and insightfully — both rare talents.

But character development is generally lacking in the book. Fashad remains a mysterious object of the characters’ obsession, but looms as a background figure whose motivations and even personality are obscured.

Although the ambiguity of the character may be an intentional device to illuminate the other players, in some ways it makes them harder to understand. Readers will fail to understand why everyone was so taken with Fashad, who seems mostly like a nasty, but attractive, thug.

IN ADDITION TO the man on the down low and his confused wife, the other characters include Xander, a gay hairdresser (imagine) who is Fashad’s lover; Dream, Cameshia’s daughter who feels so unloved that she’ll take any man who appears interested; and Smokey, Fashad’s right-hand man who decides to use Dream to obtain her stepfather’s money.

Smokey’s motivation for stealing Fashad’s money, other than the obvious financial gain and the fact that federal officers have asked for Smokey’s cooperation, is to retaliate against the man who molested him for years, beginning when Smokey was just 16.

The overall portrayal of sexual orientation in “5 Minutes and 42 Seconds” is stilted and frustrated. No character in the book seems to be in charge of when and with whom they have sex.

Is this a social commentary from Williams on the repression of homosexuality within the black community? It could be. The book doesn’t offer much by way of answers, but might be important for the questions it poses.

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