CHILDREN IN THE WIND

Rich, blond, and living in a chic Central Park West penthouse, California transplant Chris Rivers seems the epitome of cool to narrator Lenore Pickel. Lenore, anxious about her family's upcoming move to suburbia, admires Chris' adaptability and is impressed by her lifestyle even though the Rivers' household is a decidedly unhappy one--Chris' mother is zonked out on downers or speed and her beloved father is said to be dead. But the farfetched end reveals that Mrs. Rivers got a divorce once she learned her charming German hubby (whom she met and married in Argentina) had been a Nazi army officer--and now Mr. Rivers (aka Heinrich Strommer) tracks down his daughter, kidnaps her, and whisks her back to the pampas. Grohskopf blitzes readers with several other references to fascism: Coburn classmate Howie Markel runs away to join a Moonie-type cult; class poet Marah Rothberg's mother is a guilt-ridden concentration camp survivor; drama teacher Violet Ardsley (nee Hannah Von Bischoffshausen) was once forced to join a Hitler Youth Group; and even Lenore's mother, really just your garden variety nag, is presented as a petty tyrant. What this all adds up to is anybody's guess; readers are likely to find Children in the Wind mostly hot air.