MARGIE

Margie's accused of majoring in ""clothes, boys and parties,"" of going to grad school for want of a goal, of living in a cocoon and ignoring ""Conditions""--all this by her soc prof father in a Big Ten school during the Depression. And much of it--especially the campus mores--without any bridging perspective: a Thirties story in a Thirties frame of reference. Even then, were college grads as empty-headed and easily led as Margie? (Whereas the Young Communist Leaguer is bleak and unbending.) And did Daddy remain the big man in their lives? After some futile partying and some second-thoughts, Margie lands a job as an apprentice social worker; she also links up with lanky Tom, who's had his eye on her for a long time--but just a little longer than she sensed that he (the tall figure who intercepted her slide on the ice, the friend of her brother with whom she broke a date) would be ""the one."" After all, brother Bud has remarked, girl-gadding has to do with finding a man. Which made more sense in a prom-trotting context than it does today. The way it was, maybe, for over 40's, with little extension.