This book will make most people feel either better about their family of origin, or not alone. The book begins in late summer, 1979, when the Goldstein family, headed by Sharon and Dennis, have dinner in the back yard of their Chevy Chase house to see Ben, their druggy, athletic son, off to an unexpected choice in colleges--Brandeis. Brainy was not one of his high school characteristics nor was studious, but he is hoping the atmosphere will be good for him. The book is wonderfully funny, a compelling story of a splintering suburban family, an intimate social history of three generations of American Jews.
The story moves seamlessly from one relative to the next, from memory to memory, flashback to flashback, and always in the background is the political climate of the present: the Cold War, the Iran hostage crisis and the grain embargo, which affects the dad's work at the Department of Agriculture. Subtly, this is also a story about espionage, from which the title comes: I spy with my little eye . . . something red.
The nuclear family comes together--without actually being together--in the spring, for Parents' Day at Brandeis. Ben, who never wanted his parents to visit, is busy with demonstrations against the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The parents find themselves alone for the evening, dinner plans aborted while their children go to (unbeknownst to the parents)an LSD party. As you might imagine, this does not end well, although Sharon and Dennis do find a road to start their lives as parents who have no children at home.
A series of surprising developments carries the story to a disturbing conclusion. Late in the book, Sharon thinks: "They had always believed that what they would pass down to their children was not the good fortune their parents had fought for and handed them readily, but the intangible splendor of hope and dreaming."
Hang onto that thought. Is that what we hope for, and is it possible? Very thought-provoking book.
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