THE YEAR OF AUGUST
By
A first novel has some sultry sequences along with a certain vitality which is concentrated on the natives of Talon, a California cannery town. Chris Lord, who wants many of the things money can't buy, also hopes to blot out the past in which his mother was a servant for the Talons- and the present where she has involved him by two Portuguese marriages in the slovenly section of the town. His own marriage to Lillian will help to safeguard him socially- but the return to town of Sally Talon to sell the old Talon home-place gives him a new incentive, although others are quicker to recognize that it is Sally that he wants along with her house. Sally, who is capricious and perverse, tantalizes him with the promises she will never keep, and finally runs out on him, while Lillian- who has already tried to show her love for Chris by slashing her arm- finally proves the meaningless of life without him by taking hers... A man's desires and a woman's whims key the instability of the emotional metabolism here- and the personal despair to which it leads.