A NEW ENGLAND GIRLHOOD

by Nancy Hale ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

In 1955 Nancy Hale published a collection of short stories, sketches chiefly, which had a strongly nostalgic, autobiographical feel. At least so it seemed to this reader. The best of all was the title story, The Empress' Ring, which she has included in this portrait of a child growing up in Boston in the first quarter of this century. There's a familiar feel to much of what she recalls, for anyone whose own childhood memories include an exalted sense of the importance of the grownup dinner parties, panic over being considered ""different"" at school, an eager desire to ""belong"", a sense of adventure in planning projects that proved anticlimactic in achievement, a rejection of adult advice and direction, and so on. Where this book is different- and possible limiting- is the intensely New England feel, done with slight tongue-in-cheek, while at the same time a wistful cognition of the hub-of-the-universe point of view. Regional and period in value. Some may be familiar to New Yorker readers.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION