Shelf Discovery by Lizzie Skurnick

Author:Lizzie Skurnick [Skurnick, Lizzie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

EXTRA CREDIT

Are You in the House Alone?

By Richard Peck 1976

Can You Hear Me Now?

Without exaggeration, I can say with confidence that any child of the 1970s and 80s can confirm, in a sizable swath of mainstream TV, they raped everyone. First it was Differ’nt Strokes’ Kimberly, locked up by that old man and nearly molested while Arnold banged on the door. Ditto Punky Brewster. The Facts of Life’s Natalie had some bus-station incident with Tootie banging helplessly on the door (doors blocking what happened apparently were the way to go on prime time), and Fame’s Irene Cara had to show her breasts to the pervy guy—and a girl in the Fame spin-off TV series got raped.

I’m not done! Family Ties’ Justine Bateman got perved on by her dad’s best friend. The pretty daughter on Gimme a Break had her sweater half ripped off and, if I do not mistake myself, then they raped Hunter’s Dee Dee. They raped Cagney. They may have raped Cagney twice. (I’m surprised they didn’t rape Kit.) And there was of course, the infamous Lipstick, with Mariel Hemingway screaming, “He raped my sister!” which we weren’t supposed to watch, but of course did.

I cannot emphasize how disconcerting it was, in the era of Love Boat followed by Fantasy Island, to see the sit-com characters one was accustomed to living vicariously through in very unfunny peril. As I sit here rocking in my cane chair, I am dimly aware that, nowadays, there are shows devoted to rape and the procedural accoutrements thereof. The impulse to raise awareness on a Very Important Issue remains high, as does the salacious lure of insta-drama. (Witness the entirely gratuitous rape of The Sopranos’ Dr. Melfi.) But I’m not here to retroactively wrist-slap the media. I lay out the Rape-In-Our-Times roundup only to emphasize how Richard Peck’s Are You in the House Alone? was such a departure from the one-episode treatment of its era, and to wonder, given the temporary cultural fascination of that time, why there weren’t more books like it.

The story of Gail Osbourne, whose parents have moved from New York to the Greenwich-esque Oldfield Village in Connecticut just as she enters high school, Are You in the House Alone? is a commentary not only on the laws that govern the nation but society. Gail is dating Steve Pastorini, a hot working-class brainiac given to sending her notes with quotes from Othello. Her best friend, the doggedly social-climbing Allison, is dating Phil Lawver (ironic name alert!), the scion of the richest family in town. Anyone who can add two and two can probably predict how the foursome will add up.

Other social conventions will probably be more jarring for the modern reader. First of all, Gail, horror of horrors, is having sex with Steve—but it’s not a big deal that she is. It takes place alongside doing homework, going to each other’s house for dinner, or any other normal activities of a near-adult relationship—in short, it’s central and important but not controversial.

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