THE KISS OF KIN

by Mary Lee Settle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1955

For those (they may not be too many) who remember the earlier (1954) The Love Eaters, this is again a cutting close-up of a family group, this time even more sharply isolated- as the passing over of Sister Anna Mary has brought together her children and grandchildren at their home place in the Holy Roller country. Her daughters Mary Lee and Amelia are there; her son Abraham had died; but his son, also Abraham, has returned- and with Mary Lee's daughter, Mary Margaret, are now alien. For Mary Margaret has married, a ""foreigner"", Julik Rosen, an artist- but a poor excuse as a man; and Abraham, with a vagrant history, intrudes on her marriage and disturbs the family gathering with his insistence on learning the truth behind the deliberate dereliction which caused his father's death. The reading of the will- which was intended to tie the family together legally if in no other way- leaves Abraham with the power to exert a discordant and disruptive influence- which he foregoes, as he walks out with Mary Margaret.... The pawky, petty circumstances of these lives, inbred and circumscribed by pride and rigidity, are reproduced with vicious accuracy-and while Miss Settle's talent is a perhaps unpleasant one- it is true.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION