Imaginary Freinds

The problem is that two sociologists, one junior, the narrator, Roger Zimmern, and one senior, Thomas McMann, are to study a religious group. The group is isolated. The beliefs of the group are unusual. Lurie's academic story is funny. Roger goes out to the town, Sophis, New York, (sophisticated?), to reconoitre. He stays at Ovid's Motel. He is not supposed to disclose to group members his identity and his interest. It seems a girl with the name Verena is the main channel to a celestial realm, Varna. Varnians are not clothed in the flesh. Beings, Ro and Vo, have been identified. Seeker theology mixes Christian Science, Calvinism, spiritualism, and science fiction. Mass delusions are not the same as individual delusions. Roger visits Verena and the Seekers three times before the arrival of McMann to the scene. The similarities of the nomenclature to Verena Roberts's name are evident. Her automatic writing, the basis of the gathering of the Truth Seekers, began about seven or eight months earlier. Verena is a college drop out, having moved to Sophis to live with her uncle and aunt while attending college and having become ill. Verena has some kind of ability, some force, Roger concludes. When McMann arrives the furnace isn't working and McMann assists in fixing it. The Truth Seekers deem the event a sort of miraculous intervention. One of the Seekers outs the professors. Laughably, that member, Ken, is ejected from the group for his unorthodox conduct. The sociologists note that group morale is high. The members have a family-like relationship to each other. They are tolerant. Whereas Roger believes that Verena has spiritual gifts, McMann sees her as a figure in an Edgar Allan Poe story. When one of the members hits upon a presumably pyramid-style scheme of buying decorations for the home and selling items to group members, Verena stamps out the proposal as a misplaced emphasis on material things. As things progress, Roger fears Verena is experiencing the disintegration of her personality as she commences to follow an overly restrictive diet and exhibits other oddities of behavior. As the group learns of a scheduled visitation of the Varnians they endeavor to rid themselves of dead animal matter in their diets and wardrobes. Roger finds himself reduced to wearing synthetic puppy dog underwear. When the date of the scheduled visit passes, the group determines that McMann is the embodiment of the Varnian messanger, Ro. The signs were misread. When Thomas McMann orders the renegade Ken off of the premises, he shoulders a shotgun, precipitating a run-in with the police. Tom is committed to a mental hospital. Visiting him, Roger cannot figure out if he is sane, playing at insanity, or insane. Members of the group visit him. Roger learns that Ken and Verena have moved to New Mexico.

"Imaginary Friends" deals with spirituality, group delusion and the strange flowers of thought blooming in isolated conditions. It takes the old myth of the 'hidden people' and impresses it on a small, benign cult not dissimilar to Heaven's Gate set in an ordinary neighbourhood in an ordinary little town. Two sociologists join the cult to research small-group phenomena and are increasingly drawn into the interactions and rituals of the cult as events escalate. The Coming is prophesied and tensions rise, culminating in the breakdown of the main researcher and and a lull in the cult's proceedings. Yet, the story continues.... The novel raises valid observations on conducting research and the blurring of lines between observer and participant; the characters are eminently believable, which made this an enjoyable read.

To me, this is a great look at how people fool themselves...the people who want to believe in aliens, and also the people who fool themselves into thinking they can get involved with a group and not interact with it. With Lurie's sharp eye for character and fine ear for dialogue, it is easy for a reader to get pulled in and immerse themselves in the world she creates. Based on a sociology study of groups who held the same beliefs as the fictional group she creates, I feel Lurie goes beyond the dry academic studies to illuminate what really goes on when people find their most mundane beliefs challenged by the surities of a larger group...such as society at large.

As a sociologist who teaches just the sort of research of which Lurie writes, of course I've always cherished this book, & I've followed its publishing history (it was originally furnished with a tacky, misrepresenting sci-fi cover, was O.P. for a while, & blessedly has been reissued). I also cherish the way it represents Lurie's many virtues: fine, tight writing; delicious word-play; witty imagery; & sharp observations of everyday life that remind readers of the social selves they may be forced to don-- & how those social selves are at odds with their desires as individuals.I've also used the book when I teach fieldwork sociology, the very discipline that Lurie's professors try to practice. Students are always fascinated by Lurie's sharp lesson in what not to do.