The love-war continues for Alison Lurie but in [Only Children] she has introduced a referee…. For the title has a double meaning: the actual children in the story are "only children" in the sense of being without siblings; but their parents are "only children" in that they are just immature….

It's all a question of sexual relations and the nature of love. Only Children is an easily read, fast moving, summer weekend sort of novel; yet the underlying "message" is tough….

No one complains exactly about anyone else, but in each case one spouse is "crazy about" his or her marriage partner, and Lurie makes it clear that "crazy" is to be taken quite literally….

The novel begins and ends with Mary Ann's private imaginings, and the little girls' games, conversations and reveries punctuate their elders' throughout. Sometimes this is wonderfully successful, as when an interminable, unscripted play...