Test Pattern

Marjorie Klein

It's 1954, wives are wives, men work, children are innocent and television is a new phenomenon. In this setting, Lorena and Pete get their first TV set and their lives change almost immediately. It isn't enough that family dinners now consist of tv dinners (without homemade biscuits) eaten around the television set and all conversations revolve around who saw what on tv, but their 11 year old daughter Cassie seems to be going crazy.

Only Cassie isn't crazy, she sees into the future via the test pattern on television. She learns not to worry her parents with what she sees, but Cassie is fascinated. She's also concerned that her family life is falling apart; and why shouldn't she be worried? Her mom never cooks anymore and she's taken up with the mailman, her father is becoming increasingly angry about his job at the shipyard and spends his time watching tv, rather than playing with her.

THe bigger message (how tv has changed us for the better and the worse) is something to think about. Unfortunately, it's masked in something that to me seemed a little too obvious. I laughed at Lorena and her tap dancing routine and every changing hairstyles; I enjoyed all the references to 1950's tv and I especially loved guessing what Cassie was "seeing" from the very vague references (for instance, she saw a man who had his penis cut off!); and I thought the concept of the book was great. It was the follow-through that was a little off. The ending a little too pat, an author trying a little too hard to make a point. But, an enjoyable read nonetheless.