Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9411050037
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: E4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY LYNN ECKMAN|
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Although we tend to be nostalgic about the past, the 1950s spawned not only such marvels as the TV-dinner and the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, but also the war in Korea, the rise of McCarthyism and the execution of the Rosenbergs. Sally Belfrage's memoir of the time is absorbing, thought provoking and alternately painful and amusing.
The child of English parents who did not conform to convention, Belfrage could find no way to rebel except by trying to imitate "normal" American teen-agers. Born in Hollywood, she moved often and spent her formative years in the Bronx, yet she never belonged anywhere. Alienated by her mother's preference for her younger brother, she adored her father even though she was often embarrassed by the leftist politics he expressed as editor of the National Guardian.
While Cedric Belfrage was being interrogated by the McCarthy committee and later imprisoned as he awaited deportation, his daughter was spending her weekends at West Point where her fiance was a cadet. The two men represented entirely different standards in every facet of life, so it is no wonder that Sally felt split into two separate personalities, neither complete.
"Un-American Activities" is a book rich in ideas and in details about complex and talented people. Both Molly and Cedric Belfrage joined the Communist Party in the 1930s but quit three months later. Both were professional writers, and between them married eight times. Many of their skills, aberrations and attitudes were mirrored in their child, whose chaotic and colorful life ended in March of 1994, a fact to be mourned by discerning readers. In her fifth and last work, she made the 1950s as real as today.
Lynn Eckman teaches at Roanoke College.
by CNB