Summary

In 1963 two girls, one black and one white, share an Upper West Side apartment in which they pursue an idealistic integration. Although the characters are not named—labelled only “negro” or “white”—until late in the story, their names will be used here to avoid confusion. The white roommate, Charlotte, has just graduated from college and is dating a black Umbra poet, Henry. The black roommate, Cheryl, has just fetched her white freedom rider boyfriend, Alan, from jail. The apartment is a way-house for radical young people, both black and white, who in their own ways oppose segregation and revel in idealism “inside the melting pot” (34).

Cheryl and Alan consider marriage, but a visit to Cheryl’s distinguished father—“New Jersey’s first ‘colored’ principal”—does not go well (35). At the visit, Alan quotes John Updike’s 1963 novel The...