WHITE GIRLS <i> by Lynn Lauber (Vintage: $9.00).</i>

This linked series of stories forms a novel about a girl growing up in Ohio during the late ‘50s and ‘60s. The first section of the book, told from Loretta Dardio’s teen-age point of view, captures the dreary reality that belies the current nostalgia for ‘50s suburbia. Loretta’s repressed mother embodies the generation of women who aspired to be more than housewives, but never got the opportunity: Her weary sighs can fill their immaculate tract house. Loretta defies the conservatively middle-class sensibilities of her parents by dating black guys, one of whom impregnates her. “Sugar Street,” the second part of the book, chronicles the life of the young black man who fathered Loretta’s child. These episodes lack the knowing details and sureness of tone that characterize the chapters recounting Loretta’s side of the story.