Why Aren't You Smiling?
Growing up in the 1970s has never before been portrayed with such delightful ludicrousness and heartrending tenderness as in Why Aren't You Smiling? When teenage Leonard decides to quit being a Dweeb and instead join the Burnouts, his “good kid” persona is abandoned as he embarks on a comically painful journey of self-discovery through his unconventional friendship with Rick, an older Jesus freak barefoot hippie. The farcical parallel story of how Irving Mandelbaum from Los Angeles transmogrifies into rag-tag cult leader Rick of The Forever Family paints an indelible portrait of California during one of its most preposterous eras.
Alvin Orloff, a California native, began writing as a teenager in the 1970s, a decade from which he has never fully recovered. He is the author of I Married An Earthling (Manic D), a genre and gender-bending sci-fi send up, and Gutter Boys (Manic D), a novel of decadent romance with ghosts. Orloff is also the co-author of The Unsinkable Bambi Lake, a transsexual showbiz memoir, and his short work has appeared in Pills, Chills, Thrills, and Heartache (Alyson) as well as the journal, Instant City. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
