A DISTANT DRUM

by Charles Bracelen Flood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 1957

This second novel by the author of the unheralded best selling Love is a Bridge, while it sustains the belief that the writer has gifts for creating recognizable characters and situations, is unlikely to have as general an appeal. Patrick Kingsgrant, Tabor Academy- Harvard University- only son of a successful lawyer, heir to an island in Penobscot Bay- somehow never captures one's sympathy in his revolt against a life too cushioned for his aspirations. He wants to write; his father has set his heart on his being a lawyer; over this they split, in good old fashioned style. Pat finds a scrubby room in the York-town area of New York and finishes his novel before the determination to take his part in the Korean War sends him into the army. His is an inglorious career; he has concealed a congenital weakness in his right arm, only to have ripped muscles, nerves and tendons in his left arm betray him. His girl lets him down- and the reader is uncertain how much her inability to come to terms with his Catholicism is at the root of it. He serves a bitter apprenticeship in the basic training months -- but learns something of the worth of the men with whom he is thrown, before he gets his honorable discharge- and goes back to his writing. Somehow, too many areas are touched upon- no central theme cuts very deep- and the book seems more like a first novel, derivative, often imitative, than did the simpler, more direct earlier book. Perhaps he had to get this out of his system; it has elements that suggest autobiography. Fingers crossed for the next.

Pub Date: Feb. 27, 1957

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1957

Categories: FICTION