Leonard is 15 years old, the child of Jewish atheist intellectuals in Berkeley. He’s deeply entrenched in the 1970s, surrounded by burnt-out hippies and disco music. Then he meets Rick, a charismatic hippie in his twenties–who also happens to be a preacher for a sect of fundamentalist Jesus freaks. In Alvin Orloff’s new novel Why Aren’t You Smiling, Leonard’s new acquaintance introduces him to a […]