The Forgotten Charms of HypocrisynLisa Alther: Original Sins; Alfred A.nKnopf; New York.nby Becki KlutenIt would be difficult to imagine anbetter time to be a child than duringnthe 1950’s. The view from a small townnwas that of a placid, cheerful country.nChildren could wander at will withoutnfear of molestation, doors were seldomnlocked, neighbors chatted languidly onnfront porches. There were county fairs,nJuly 4th celebrations and ice-cream socials.nThose of us born in the first yearsnof the baby boom reaped whatever benefitsnour parents had culled from thenhorrors of war and Depression. Fromntheir determination to make the world anbetter place we received a near-idyllicnexistence—on the surface at least. It isnthe darker, more murky depths beneathnthat placid surface that Lisa Alther purportsnto examine. She sets her tale in ansmall town in Tennessee, but it couldnhave been any small town anywhere—nMichigan, Iowa, Ohio, even her adoptednVermont.nMs. Alther follows five childrentwonsisters, two brothers and one blacknboy—through the somnolent 50’s andninto the turbulent 60’s, through theninnocent illusions of childhood into thenconflicts and heartaches of adolescencenand on to what Alther sees as the expectednadulthood of each. We have Raymondnand Jed, stamp collector and jocknrespectively; Emily and Sally, “brain”nand brainless cheerleader; and Donny,nwho seems all but unaware that his skinncolor differs from that of his friends.nThese are not characters, though, theynare stereotypes. Their sole function isnto allow Ms. Alther to express her contemptnand/or admiration for that whichneach symbolizes. She seems especiallynto despise Jed and Sally, who marry andnMrs. Klute is on the editorial staff ofnthe Chronicles.nS6inChronicles of Culturenattempt to live out their lives in theirnhome town, for better or worse. Raymondnand Emily, who fulfill their childhoodndream of going to New York City,ncome in for their share of misery too,nbut Ms. Alther has decided to approvenof their respective lifestyles. Raymondnis a borderline bisexual and back-tonaturenfreak living alone in a backwoodsncabin, and Emily is a lesbian flittingnfrom one “relationship” to another.nDonny, Ms. Alther notes approvingly.nticity to high-school proms. What seemsnto upset Ms. Alther most is the systemnof customs and morals which was operantnduring the 50’s and early 60’s. Thatnsocial design depended, to a large extent,non a mechanism of essentially benevolentnhypocrisy. Hypocrisy is currently onnsome list of most-despised nouns, and toncombine it with the adjective “benevolent”nwould, at first, seem ludicrous.nBut a certain service has been renderednto society, to civilized living, by the care-n”Original Sins is an old-fashioned novel in the best sense of the term . . . [Alther]ngives generously, both to her readers and to the children of her imagination.”n— Timenalso winds up in Gotham and becomesna black militant.nI attended a small-town high-schoolnclass reunion recently, and I tried tonfind someone, anyone, who might bearnout Lisa Alther’s perception of life. Infound a woman who was president ofnsomething called a Scrabble Club, anformer class goof-off who seemed veryncomfortable with his MBA, a womannwho claimed to be writing songs fornJohnny Cash; a banjo player in a countrynband. There were workaholics and,nno doubt, a few alcoholics, broken marriagesnand odd careers among both then”locals” and those who had arrived fromnfar-flung cities. I searched in vain fornanyone even faintly resembling .one ofnthe characters of Original Sins. Perhapsnmilitants and lesbians don’t go to classnreunions.nIn truth, Original Sins is not a novel,nit’s a rather petty, and pettish, diatribe.nMs. Alther’s point seems to be that wenwere all conned, back in the 50’s, intonthinking that life was good, or, worsenyet, nice. She’s stuck in a late-60’snmentality combined with a feministnmindset that blames all problems onnsocial arrangements which are groundednin traditional values. She takes disjointednpot shots at everything from McCarthynto Catholicism to feminine domes-nnnful, if unwritten, practice of hypocrisy.nIt’s a rather convoluted concept, difficultnto explain. It has existed for centuries asna feeling, a way of living, which was simplynunderstood but seldom mentioned,nso much a part of life’s very fabric thatnit went almost unnoticed. What it did wasnto make life more pleasant. Miseries innindividual lives were denied, at least innpublic, which somehow made themneasier to bear. The man who cheatednon his wife sat with her in church onnSunday, and if it didn’t alter their problems,nat least she didn’t have to bearnher shame in public. Cheerful smilesnwere the order of the day.nThose cheerful smiles gave way, duringnthe 60’s, to fanatical grimaces andndisagreeable scowls. Hypocrisy was outnand “let it all hang out” was in. Whatnpeople found was that such a change didnnot appreciably improve their lives.n. The dubious privilege of doing one’snown thing was tempered by the necessitynof watching, and sometimes enduring,nothers doing their own oftenndisgusting, even violent, things. Rathernthan a friendly, if hypocritical, smilenfrom a stranger on a bus, one was justnas likely to have to watch him pick hisnnose or fondle his girlfriend, or, in somenneighborhoods, his boyfriend. Strippednof the restrictions imposed by that sys-n