JUST DIAL A NUMBER

by Edith Maxwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1970

. . . any old number, and then just say ""Someone tried to kill me."" It's purely for kicks after all, and when Cathy's god Todd challengeth, Cathy must act. To make a big scene over such a little dare -- and in front of friends Deedee and Paul -- would hardly be prudent; and anyhow, who could have known. . . ? Who indeed, beyond the perverse imagination that contrived the plot? Who could have known that the receiver of the call would take Cathy's voice for her daughter's, would drive recklessly home with her husband and fatally crash; known that said daughter, now orphaned, one Mary Ann Connolly, would be a sophomore at the very school where Cathy and clique are seniors? West Point-bound Todd, to a lesser degree Deedee, and least of all Paul with whom Cathy eventually falls in love, disavow responsibility and reject any guilt -- while she donates clothes anonymously to Mary Ann and becomes helplessly involved in a pathological friendship with her. Revolving around Cathy's tortured psyche and the unspeakable tie that binds the foursome are such abused and absurdly mis-used conventions as a social-climbing mother improbably addicted to soap opera; a divorcee addicted to alcohol and ironing; money, morality, snobbery, pot, popularity (Pom-Pom girls, Couple of the Year), and a hippie courting poor deflated Mary Ann whose grandmother-guardian has suspected her all this time of having made the phone call as a prank. Outrageously nightmarish, wholly repugnant, this exploits the problem-fiction genre -- by inventing the problem to have one to solve, and a warped one at that.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION