HOME FRONT

World War II chez U.S.A. is the subject of A.A. Hoehling's recall. At the start ""flamboyance was lacking,"" a state that can also be ascribed to this book. It does set forth with fair competence the story of the home folk and how they responded to Pearl Harbor and the war years that followed. There was the OCD, bedeviled by Eleanor's appointments, with its ""remnants of a gigantic false alarm."" Henry Kaiser raised production with his pre-fabs, and General Longstreet's widow went to work in a factory. Civilians submitted to rationing and to selective service, barring the inevitable and often imaginative draft dodges. Industry retooled and took on lady welders; while balky Sewell Avery and John L. Lewis, Jr. made things rough for the government. There were casualties: Carole Lombard, the Normandie, Glenn Miller, and F.D.R. In the two year period after Pearl Harbor, more people died on the job than at the front. And Jack Benny's imitation Amati violin brought one million dollars at a War Bond Rally. Catchall coverage.