THE HARVARD TREE

by Aima Stone ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 1954

The Harvard Tree is a plum tree (not to be confused with Janice Holt Giles' The Plum Thickel- also Houghton, Mifflin, or with the Elsevier award, later in this issue, also a novel of Texas in the 1920's). Here too, the events are recorded through the eyes of a youngster, and Laura is the little darlin' who listens in on, rather than interferes in, the events of her family and the town of Ben Dort. The past and its freight of hear- say and reminiscence full the story, which is hard to find, almost to a standstill; and ""past the embroidery and the empty years"", memories crowd and clutter the lives of those who cross this landscape. Laura, as she digs for her Aunt Flossy's diamond under the plum tree; Aunt Flossy, who had never found a man to marry and still dreams of an escape from her unwelcome spinsterhood; Mama, and her many beaus, and her short marriage to Alan, a young lawyer who had died a month after his first big case; her brother- and her sister- her friends and most of the white and black folk in this town.... A heavy haze of nostalgia for this time and this place, contributes a certain character to a book which otherwise has very little definition.

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1954

Categories: FICTION