Hope's Cadillac

The plot of Page's first novel is predictable: woman ""has"" to marry at 18; husband tires of her aimlessness; he leaves for another woman; he gets custody of the kids on trumped-up grounds; wife finds identity on her own. What distinguishes the book is its setting: Houston, soon after the first Apollo moon landing. All the textures and issues of the time come into the picture: communes, Walter Cronkite, free schools, VISTA, underground newspapers, protest marches, Biafra, Mahara-ji. Hope Fairman experiences it all as her disgruntled husband, Clay, moves out, leaving the suburban house, Cadillac and the children. As she wafts through the ""hippie-dippie lifestyle"" and loses the kids to Clay, Hope expresses regret and self-doubt until a photography career makes her feel more substantial than she felt when anchored to a traditional home and family. If the period detail rings true, the story that supports it doesn't. Hope's counterculture attentions scatter so widely that she is quick to find distractions after major losses. The pivotal events--the discovery of Clay's affair, Clay's request for a divorce, Hope's affairs, her sale of her house, her overnight success--come too fast to be believed. Still, for some baby boomers, this will be a mighty nostalgic piece. Author tour. (July)