THE NARROWS

by Ann Petry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 1953

A powerful and moving book, dealing with an almost proscribed subject, the love of a white woman and a Negro. Ann Petry, author of The Street writes of her own people in terms of people, not of Negroes, and the story of the Negro district in a small New England city is not a story of racial stresses until Camilo Treadway Sheffield, morbidly curious perhaps, runs for help from a crippled pervert, and finds in Link Williams a security that turns to love before either one realizes what they are getting in for. Meantime, as tensions mount with their passions, the pattern of life going on makes very real the doubts and jealousies of the staid Treadway butler as he knows his wife, Mamie, is plying her trade behind his back; as their youngest, J.C., finds pilfering a new sensation; as Link's friends at The Last Chance try to save him from his fate; as Abbie Crunch, Link's foster mother, and her friend, Frances, discuss the impact of one human on another. It is a teeming canvas- vividly drawn- with mounting drama in the desperate situation Camilo has brought upon herself, in the involvement of Link, who knows the issues- but is unaware of the facts. A book to watch.

Pub Date: Aug. 17, 1953

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1953

Categories: FICTION