A SHARE OF THE WORLD

Another there's-more-behind-the-ivy-than-vine college novel that leads us in and out of the dormitory for four dismal years. One passing affair asks the heroine, Lois, ""Aren't there any normal people there at all?"" She replies: ""Plenty only I don't know them."" One hopes that this is indeed the case after becoming familiar with her circle of wayward acquaintances. There's Marty (a free spirit) and her lover Louis (he beats her- she eventually winds up the affair after an abortion), and Ruth, whose unrequited love for Marty drives her to the church. There are Lois's divorced parents and Phillippa, her father's 19-year-old mistress, Martin, Lois's homosexual brother and of course the varied assortment of Lois's lovers. The novel bounces along from bed to trauma and back again and at college and novel's end, we find Lois looking forward to a new stage in life, but one suspects that it will be a repetition of the repetition. We were forced to echo Lois's opinion on a novel-""So much self-pity and steaming emotion."" She admits that she's basically out of sympathy with the whole set-up"" and so are we.