Goodbye, Mr. Clean

By R. Z. Sheppard

LIBERTY TWO

by ROBERT LIPSYTE 287 pages. Simon & Schuster. $7.95.

One of the few things to rival the inflation rate is the rising paranoia index. Need anyone be reminded of the fears and confusions that hang over from recent assassinations, wars and political scandals? It is a time that has caused --if not an actual power vacuum--at least an intense low-pressure area that readily attracts conspiracy theorists, occult mongers and alert topical novelists like Robert Lipsyte.

Lipsyte, a former sports columnist who contributed some of the best prose to appear in the New York Times, has not lost his journalist's instincts. For people concerned about who is minding the nation, he has updated the eternal quest for a hero and a leader. His candidate, Navy Commander Charles Rice, might have been tailored by a market-research computer. A former astronaut and moon walker, Rice is also part Old Testament prophet, New Testament savior, Oliver Cromwell, Brownshirt, Mr. Clean and Vic Tanny.

Rice represents that passion for an instant purgative that often seizes hopelessly overburdened civilizations. No one in history ever had a better pulpit. While standing on the germ-free lunar surface, Rice departs from his scheduled extravehicular activity to speak directly to TV viewers round the world. "I have seen the earth plain," says the commander. Then instead of listening to the usual astronautical cliches and pro forma prayer, tens of millions hear Rice rage against purposelessness, corruption, pollution and "the murderous vanity that hurls us into space." Before NASA cuts him off, he has called for a Second American Revolution.

Government efforts to excuse (or discredit) Rice's behavior succeed for a time. But after returning to earth, he calls for an end to manipulation by a hidden power elite and sets out in a silver jumpsuit and old silver school bus called Liberty Two to carry his message across the nation. He becomes a potent grassroots force before he is destroyed by shadowy operatives representing some sinister force within the Government.

Because Rice's single-mindedness severely handicaps him as a fictional device for telling a story, Author Lipsyte chronicles the progress of Liberty Two through the more complex eyes of David Cable, a former prizewinning journalist who attaches himself to Rice's crusade. Actually Cable is an undercover agent for a quasi-governmental research agency whose job is to penetrate and subvert radical groups. Cable is a remarkably scrupulous spy. He is burdened by doubt and guilt because his wife, child and girl friend have been killed in his line of duty. It does not take too much exposure to Rice's strength and magnetism to weaken Cable's loyalty to his bosses. The process is accelerated by the love of an energetic female photographer who is also on the "mad moon man" tour.

When last seen, Cable and his girl are fleeing from the Government assassins who have killed Rice. It is not entirely clear whether they have made a separate peace and will drop out or whether they will carry the seeds of the Second American Revolution to new ground. What is clear is that Novelist Robert Lipsyte appears to be first in line with a theme that is likely to get quite a workout during the next few publishing seasons.

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