BEAT OF THE CITY

Eyes turned to her, eyes furtive, cruel, empty, turned from all sides. Her own were level and honest. They turned away."" It's Mary, golden-haired Angel of the Melbourne Underworld (sometimes, interchangeably, the Underground), on the trail of her own pet delinquent, Raylene, in the miasma of the Paradise Fun Center; but Raylene is about to defend the virtue she never knew she had and thereby Justify Mary's faith in her redemption. Also inspired by the example of Mary and her preacher uncle are Sydney Ernest Green, a rebel from the wrong side of the river, and his spoiled sidekick Sable Korkoran; when they're not prating about the superiority of the younger generation and putting down their parents, they're yearning for a monster motorcycle (Sabie) or easy money (Sydney)--hippies? Hell's Angels? insecure adolescents? just plain petty criminals? Whatever, they're eminently dislikable, and their conversion in this Grand Hotel-settlement house-psychodrama leaves the reader cold; so does the overdrawn underdog Raylene. And, contrary to suggestion, a toothbrush and a comb are not a universal panacaea.