[In his My Darling, My Hamburger], Zindel copped out on his likable, interest-sustaining characters by resolving their problems in a pat, moralizing manner. The moralizing in I Never Loved Your Mind is just as obtrusive—and the characters are more superficial (particularly the female protagonist, who's a caricature embodying the worst traits of the clichéd hippy). In a relentlessly flip, trying-to-be-funny, first-person narrative punctuated by unclever footnoted comments, Dewey, a superior 17-year-old dropout and the son of parents he amiably refers to as "the librarian" and "the engineer," tells of his love for Yvette Goethals, whom he meets while working as a respiration therapist. Yvette is a tough petty thief, ardent vegetarian, and part-time nudist, who shares a pad with her brother and the other two members of the rocking Electric Lovin' Stallions. One day at her home she initiates a massage session with Dewey that slips over into lovemaking, but Yvette later dumps him, informing him she's never loved his mind. Throughout the book, Dewey's sincerity and openness to people are contrasted with Yvette's pseudo-idealism and cynicism, but the irritating self-consciousness of his narrative strains reader empathy for both characters. And while Zindel zonks readers with a glittering verbal battery of pungent dialogues, apt descriptions, bon mots, and some four-letter words, it's a virtuosity that masks rather than reveals characters; an unsuccessful attempt to illuminate serious teen conflicts—dropping out versus working within the Establishment, resolving attitudes about sex, etc.—via sophisticated humor. Still, flawed as this book is, it makes better reading than most simply because Zindel is a more technically proficient writer than most producing novels for post-child, pre-adult readers.
Diane Gersoni-Edelman, in her review of "I Never Loved Your Mind," in Library Journal (reprinted from Library Journal, June 15, 1970; published by R. R. Bowker Co. (a Xerox company); copyright © 1970 by Xerox Corporation), Vol. 95, No. 12, June 15, 1970, p. 2317.
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