WHAT END BUT LOVE

by Gordon Webber ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1959

The story of the Hobart family of Basswood, Michigan:- old Holly, his sons and daughter-- Ripley the successful automobile company executive; Carrie poor but happy; Randall the minister; Ella the embittered, estranged wife of a banker who failed in the Crash; John and Bud, auto factory workers; and LaVerne crushed by the Depression- is centered around the annual family reunion on Memorial Day. It is particularly memorable this spring, in the late '30's because the old man is planning to remarry and has decided not to sell his farm to an expanding automobile company. He dies in the attempt to put out a barn fire thus symbolizing one of the novel's themes- the inexorable encroachment of the machine age on the old agrarian pattern of life. The other theme- the meaning of a family- is exemplified by chapters dealing with the individual Hobarts and the interrelationship of generations. A lusty, multi-plotted but unified story told with considerable narrative skill and color, this suffers from pretentious patches of poetic writing.... after the style of Thomas Wolfe.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1959

Categories: FICTION