Lennie appears in other Lurie novels, yet he remains a minor character. The most important link Only Children has with other Lurie works is her developing interest in children and children's literature. Lurie has been teaching at Cornell University for the past twenty-eight years, and just as she has been able to incorporate her interest in children (Only Children) and children's literature (Foreign Affairs, 1984) into her novels, she has also taught children's literature and produced a critical reading of her favorite children's books, Don't Tell the Grown Ups (1990). In it she argues that the most enduring children's books last, not because of conscientious parents who purchase only the most informative, or didactic, literature for their children, but because of the subversive spirit in them that appeals not only to children but ex-children. It is this subversive spirit, like Mary Ann's, and Anna's before her, that she...