CREED COUNTRY

by Jenny Overton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 9, 1970

. . . where the past becomes as pervasive as the present, and an antidote to the present. He is Stephen Carey, only child of the vicar and definitely a banked fire; she is ""Sarah from the middle"" of the proliferous, intense, unruly Wentworths, lately come from Cumberland. In the papers of the Creed family which he is patiently transcribing Stephen sees facts revealed, she sees drama--and both seek privacy. But the dead will not remain buried nor the search secret. The second-generation Tudor Creeds--doomed Katherine, renegade Anthony, proscribed priest Quentin--become familiars ""as though things were happening as we find out about them."" And avatars, he favoring faithful Katherine, she emulating the intrepid Anthony and regarding her impassive sister Anne as Quentin's counterpart. It is telling Anne of past-become-present, and telling Stephen she's told, that tips the precarious balance between them. He withdraws feeling betrayed; she identifies Quentin's and Anthony's bones (disinterred at the crossroads to which they were consigned) and alone witnesses their reburial in Katherine's consecrated grave. At the last, falteringly, Stephen and Sarah are reconciled, a resolution consonant with the tentative rapprochement of the rest of the Wentworths and the long-delayed reunion of the Creeds. Would that the Wentworths had ceased squabbling sooner--their compulsive bids for attention become as tiresome to the reader as to each other. However readers in general will either be snagged or put off by the historic sleuthing, what it embraces--in long passages from archaically-styled letters and Latin inscriptions--and what it portends. Given the proper bent, a most persuasive interpenetration, and not all grim.

Pub Date: Feb. 9, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION