Introduction
Student riots. Campus unrest. Civil disobedience. The phrases are terse, compressed, and grim, fitting so neatly into headlines that it sometimes seems those headlines have created the events instead of the other way around. And it has become common and certainly not unreasonable for parents to wonder, "What has happened to our kids? Why are they doing things we would never even have thought of?"
It's undeniable that today's kids are different. Even just physically, they tend to be bigger and healthier. They obviously mature more quickly spiritually and intellectually, too. But can such manifestations as campus riots possibly be interpreted as signs of maturity? Or are they expressions of a vague, undirected rebelliousness that has always been characteristic of youth, but now is appearing in much more destructive and alarming ways than ever before?
And what about the other side of the cointhat terse, compressed, grim phrase so descriptive of those who seem at times to be the kids' enemies: police brutality? There is no point in claiming that police brutality doesn't exist, any more than there is in saying that it has never been deliberately provoked by its victims. It is there, it is a force to be recognized, and it is something we should attempt to understand and explain if possible.
So far, we have raised several questions and made no attempt to provide answers. We do have our own ideas and convictions about these problems, of course. But while we have little patience with the bureaucratic habit of appointing committees to investigate such conditions, we are at the same time not sure that the time is ripe to arrive at definitive answers to all the questions that can be asked. And so we have asked Mike Goldberg, who knows the subject through firsthand experience, to provide us with as much information on it as possible within the confines of a popular, entertaining novel.
Mike Goldberg is a rather paradoxical young man on the face of it. An Irishman named Goldberg is reasonably paradoxical to begin with, and Mike (his boyish charm makes it virtually impossible to call him Mr. Goldberg) is Irish to the core. And, like many Irishmen, he started out in life as a policeman, working in both Chicago, where he saw all sides of big city life, and in nearby Evanston, with its generally serene old mansions and its university atmosphere. However, while Mike found police work gratifying in many ways, it was hardly intellectually stimulating enough for a young man with a genius-level I.Q. Thus Mike resigned from the force, and is currently making his living managing a large bowling alley while he studies for a law degree.
The Wayward Daughter is the result of Mike's past experience and current studies. It focuses on one particular student riot, but the portrait it paints is typical of almost any large modern campus. The characters are typical, too, in their fashion, although you will find no stereotypes here. The cast is unusually large for a modern novel, but each individual is sharply delineated and each one comes fully alive on the pages that follow.
We first meet Jack and Suzie, whose problem seems simple enough: they are frustrated by dormitory life with its necessary though old-fashioned restrictions on sexual activity. We meet Mrs. Grundy, an aged crone who is shocked that "children" should even want to know anything about sex, much less practice it. We see an amusing though poignant scene involving these three and other students, and we read with great delight and not a few laughs as their petty problems are resolved; and then we become gradually aware of the deeper, more frightening problems that are lurking and growing beneath the surface, getting ready to erupt with pain and heartbreak for all concerned ...
Only a few years ago, critics were praising novels of campus life like A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a story which was indeed stunning in its perceptions into human character. Today, such a book seems unrealistic because of its generally placid atmosphere and the comparative lack of unrest and violence. The Wayward Daughter certainly has more relevance for our timeand if it is frequently shocking in its descriptions of sex and violence alike, that is only because Mike Goldberg has seen it all and is telling it like it is.
Exactly how you react to this book will depend to a considerable extent on how old you are. The younger you are, the more likely you will be to take much of it for granted. But we think it will contain fresh insights as well as a few surprises of other kinds even for youth who are currently in college. And we are certain that it will be a valuable reading experience for all.
The Publishers