THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS ...

THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS by Chris Fuhrman (Washington Square Press: $12.; 187 pp.). Francis Doyle, the narrator of this novel set in 1974, senses the growing alienation and unrest in America, while his parents and teachers unsuccessfully attempt to preserve a crumbling illusion of the good life of the ‘50s. To divert attention from their work on an obscene comic book about the faculty of their Catholic school, Francis and his rowdy, artistic friends hatch a hare-brained scheme that backfires tragically. The reader can only regret that this promising writer died of cancer at 31, while polishing this first novel.