And what’s not indicated is the factnthat Evan Hunter is a.k.a. Ed McBain,nprolific pen of the “87th Precinct Series.”nIgnoring the McBain books.nHunter’s most widely known work isnThe Blackboard Jungle (1954), thensteamy story of a New York City voc-ednhigh school.nIn Love, Dad, Hunter brings thingsnmore up to date (he even nostalgicallynrefers to the filmed version of ThenBlackboard Jungle and attributes itsnuse of Bill Haley’s “Rock Around thenClock” as being the tocsin that alertednyouth to rock-and-roll) and leaps upnseveral social classes. No longer doesnhe write of the dirty, deadly streets andnschool hallways of New York, of thenoutcasts and misfits that give meaningnto the word toughs. This novel has asnits center Rutledge, Connecticut, antown that provides the main charactersnwith good, liberal New York City Establishmentnneighbors. The streets arenclean in Rutledge but, as everybodynknows, the dirt is on the other side ofnthe front doors. Enter vacationernHunter, camera slung around his neck.nHe takes some shots of the fictionalnfamily, some where they are central,nsome of the scenery. But at work ornplay, the Croft family is on a vacationnfrom moral responsibility.nThe Dad of the title is James “Jamie”‘nCroft, who makes his living as a freelancenphotographer. The offspring isnhis only child, Melissa, Lissie. And innkeeping with the cutesy diminutives,nMommie Constance is called Connie.n(Goldilocks in this tale also spoils things:nher name is Joanna.)nBasically, Hunter uses a split-screennapproach so he can present parallel development,nor, more accurately, parallelnregression, though he would use thenformer term. The objects of interestnare Jamie and Lissie. Jamie is 42 whennthe novel opens in 1960. He has a beautifulnwife, daughter and house. He enjoysnwhat he does for a living. He isnhandsome. But when all of the gothicnovelnembellishments are stripped away.nwhen he is observed as objectively asn;unnChronicles of Culturenpossible (events are filtered throughnhis consciousness, even though thennovel is written in the omniscientnvoice; that is, Hunter seems to identifynwith Jamie, so the reader is forced tona certain degree of empathy), a flaw isnvisible. To lift a metaphor from Shakespeare:nJamie has the blood of goatsnand monkeys coursing through hisnveins; he is too lusty for Connie.nLissie is 17 at the opening. She is answeet girl who is exclusively concernednwith her bustline development (the lacknthereof). She doesn’t smoke, drink ornswear. Lissie is indulged, spoiled, bynher father, Connie is comparatively indifferent:nLissie was the millstonenaround Connie’s neck that didn’t allownher the career that she wanted.nWith this setup, things predictablynfall into place. Jamie wants to have sexnwith Connie, but she is afraid she’ll getnpregnant again, A distracted Jamie failsnto spoil Lissie at what becomes an artificiallyncritical juncture. Lissie becomesnalienated from Dad and Mom. Jamienfalls: he gets a mistress. Lissie falls:nshe becomes a hippie. And the Kodachromentours of having a mistress andnbeing a hippie commence.n1 he bulk of the novel concerns Lissienas a hippie, a colorful albeit filthynfigure. The transformation is rapid. Thengirl who didn’t smoke cigarettes is suddenlynsmoking pot at Woodstock likenan old pro. Flat-chested, normal Lissiendidn’t have any boyfriends, but fasternNative Dimwittedness in AmericanHere is an Associated Press report on anGrand Rapids high-school student’s supremenspiritual bliss, as recorded duringnthe opening of former President Ford’snmausoleum, officially known as the GeraldnR. Ford Presidential Museum innMichigan:n’I shook hands with Debby Boonen. . . look at this hand. She touchednit right there.’ Dnnnthan a 1/125-second shutter, Lissie thenHip is in nearly every sleeping bag andnbed available. Click: Lissie in California.nClick: Lissie digging the London scene.nClick: Lissie undergoing—taking partnin—what she considers “a silent, consensualnrape” (!) perpetrated by a U.S.ndraft deserter in Amsterdam. Click:nLissie stoned out of her mind in India.nClick: Lissie living with a black heroinnaddict in Boston. And in much the samenway Jamie goes from happily marriednman to unhappily married man. Fromnthat state it’s a quick hop to beingna married man with a mistress, then tonbeing a happily married man with a newnwife. Dr. Jekyll has nothing on thesenpeople.nHunter provides little believable motivationnfor any of these transformations.nAnd it is this that makes his novelnlike a stranger’s vacation photos. Thatnis, given the premise of a vacation innHawaii, it’s a sure thing that there willnbe pictures of hula girls. Diamond Head,nWaikiki, etc. They are inevitable. Songiven the fact that Lissie becomes anhippie in 1969, it’s inevitable that hernperegrination will lead her to all of thenthen-hot spots. It’s almost as if Hunternwants to show that he is “with it,” thatnhe knows and understands the hippiengeneration just as he did the youths ofnthe days of l^he Blackboard Jungle.nHunter goes too far; he identifies withndrug smoking and casual copulation tonsuch a degree that he comes to condonenit. For example:n1.:n