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Imaginary Friends
Alison Lurie
Abacus, 1967 original. Owl Publishing Company; New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 115 West 18th St, 10011;
1998. Reprint edition. ISBN: 0805051805. (Originally published in 1967 by Putnam
Publishing Group. ISBN: 9997407768; Abacus, Owl Publishing Company, 245 pages
[Abacus edition]. Paperback edition by Avon Books, 1991. ISBN: 0380711362, 288
pages; ISBN: 0380700735.)
Reviewed by
Joseph P. Szimhart
Alison Lurie, an accomplished novelist, won a Pulitzer
Prize for fiction in 1985 for Foreign Affairs. In Imaginary Friends,
Alison Lurie appears to borrow heavily from a study and now-classic report by
Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter. The report appeared in
When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That
Predicted the Destruction of the World (1956). The Festinger study disguises
the actual cult name, location, and members. In the study, Festinger’s
assistants infiltrate a small “flying saucer” cult, the “Seekers,” in “Lakeland”
in the 1950s. Lurie was not a member of the cult or an observer during the
study.
My guess for the actual cult, if anyone cares, was a small
group in the Chicago area led by the medium Dorothy Martin (Marian Keech in the
Festinger study), who channeled information from “Sananda” and the Guardians.
The “space brothers” used the Seekers in the Festinger study to warn earthlings
about a coming catastrophic flood. In real
life, Martin fled the Chicago area after her prophecies went public, failed, and
made headlines that caused ridicule and harassment of the group. Reportedly,
Martin feared commitment to a mental asylum and litigation. She continued her
spiritualist quest as Sister Thedra, with an obscure cult following in Arizona.
She died peacefully in 1992.
I enjoyed Imaginary Friends. Lurie’s keen eye for
detail, plot twists, and subtle, laugh-out-loud humor brings the Festinger study
to another level. Lurie includes and goes beyond the participant-observer point
of view of the sociologist. She deftly choreographs how cults can affect and
change those who study them, just as sociologists can change the cults they
study. In many ways, Lurie explores critiques of Festinger’s theory and
methodology while she sustains the reasoning behind them.
Imaginary Friends is the story of two male
professors, one seasoned and the other just out of graduate school. Doctor Tom
McMann as the lead sociologist is a large, fit, middle-aged, never-married
fellow. He has established a powerful reputation among his colleagues after just
one important publication. McMann convinces his new, young colleague Roger
Zimmern, a nonpracticing Jew, to help him find a charismatic group so that the
two can test a sociological theory. It has been decades since McMann has
published anything of significance. He is anxious that no other colleague knows
about the project until he gathers his data. Zimmern finds a small, newly formed
cult in the nearby town of Sophis—Lurie mimics Festinger’s Seekers with
her cult the Truth Seekers. The two men successfully infiltrate the group
that exhibits little suspicion of their motives, save for one member, Ken.
McMann wants to observe how unexpected change and unfulfilled prophecies affect
group dynamics. He predicts that, after cognitive dissonance from
a “disconfirmation,” the group will adjust through rationalizations and by
increased recruiting. The sociologists expect to participate for months, if
necessary.
Roger narrates the story from the perspective of reflection
months after things have fallen apart. The comic events originally occurred when
Roger got in over his head in more ways than one during the project. The story
is his effort to make sense of all the apparent nonsense that happened then.
The core of the cult depends on Verena, a college dropout
at age 19, who moves in with her Aunt Elsie, an avid Spiritualist. Elsie
encourages Verena’s mediumistic sensibilities. Through automatic writing, Verena
makes contact with an alien race of Guardians from the planet Varna. The Varnian
leader Ro channels information to the group through Verena’s cryptic scrawls
written after she enters a trance state. The group also hears from Mo and Ko of
Varna in this way.
Roger describes Verena as both a nut and a sensitive,
alluring waif with sculpted features and hypnotic, liquid eyes. McMann poses as
the professor that he is, but in personality more like an affable, accommodating
car salesman. Throughout the text, Roger refers to himself as both Roger
Zimmern, the objective scholar, and as “Stupid Roger,” the klutzy, shy professor
truly interested in contact with Varna. His split persona adds to the tension he
feels and the confusion he exhibits, all of which cause uncomfortable, if comic,
moments. He eventually wonders who is crazy: Is it he, McMann, or the group?
During weeks of meetings with six or seven others in
Elsie’s house, Roger endures progressive changes in diet and belief structures.
He tries ineffectively to memorize layers of lessons derived from Ro,
Spiritualist doctrine, and idiosyncratic truths that members add to group
metaphysics. McMann and Zimmern try their best to be nondirective and
participatory, but some circumstances push their acting abilities. For example,
during a private conference, Verena attempts to “clear” Roger of icy blocks in
his mind by holding his hands while she stands almost against his body and gives
an invocation to Ro. “Stupid Roger” believes that she is trying to seduce him,
and he wants to let her. “Roger Zimmern” knows that if he dares to have sex with
the leader, he could screw up, literally, the entire project, and McMann might
kill him. Later in the novel, McMann tells Zimmern that he [Zimmern] missed a
grand opportunity for some good sex.
The novel includes truly ridiculous scenes that anyone
(like me) who was in a New Age cult might identify with. Ro tells the group
through Verena that he and other Varnians will appear to them on Earth from
their spacecraft if only devotees prepare the way through purification. Ro gives
instructions and announces the hour. The group members remove all organic items
from their persons, including cotton underwear, woolen jackets, and leather
shoes. They scamper through the house looking for wearable items made of
“scientific” materials such as nylon, polyester, and plastics.
The description of women in mismatched apparel gleaned from
Elsie’s closet and men in odd items such as rubber galoshes taken from her
husband’s closet creates quite a madcap scene for the reader’s imagination. One
man in the group had to wear a synthetic quilt wrap throughout the ritual
session. After the group removes the offensive organic clothing, Verena directs
them to put it all, piece by piece, in the fireplace and watch the stuff burn.
Zimmern has a real problem with letting go of his only expensive jacket for
something that only Stupid Roger has to believe in. Later in their motel, McMann
laughs at him, reassuring him that replacing the jacket is an expense covered by
the budget.
The oddly attired group marches outside into the snow in
Elsie’s backyard to await “The Coming.” They sing hymns of praise, offer
invocations to the Light, and wait and wonder for a long time. Ro and the
Varnians fail to appear long after the expected time. An exhausted Verena, who
had been fasting and not sleeping for days, finally announces that Ro did indeed
appear in a spiritual way. Ro’s spirit is in “man” she says, and then she
faints. After the motley entourage carries Verena back into the house, Elsie
interprets “man” as Tom McMann. When the lead sociologist reacts on cue to
accept his role as Ro, Zimmern gets very nervous and wonders what is going on.
Things get out of control when Ken, an ex-member of the cult, arrives and
demands to see Verena. Ken is in love with her, and she has feelings for him,
too. McMann sees Ken as a threat to the newest developments in the group, thus
potentially messing up his project. McMann gets a rifle, fires a shot into the
ceiling, and threatens to shoot Ken if he does not leave. Ken later brings the
police.
I will not give away the rest of the plot, but I will say
that Lurie bends the story from this point on beyond anything that happened in
the Festinger study. She entertains us with a wonderfully funny foray into the
slippery edges between devotion and mental illness. I can understand why some
professors of sociology still recommend this book to their students as required
reading. I would.
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