RESTLESS IS THE RIVER

Derleth can write. He needs still to learn the lesson of restraint. This novel carries on with some of the characters of Wind Over Wisconsin and covers the period from 1839 to 1850. Chalfonte Piorneau was the protagonist of the earlier book; his cousin, Augustin Brogmar, political exile from his native Hungary, is the central character of the new novel. The story deals with the founding of the city of Sac Prairie, with many enterprises, successful and otherwise. The gamble is meat and drink to him -- but means madness to his wife, who cannot stand the transition from the nobility of her life in Europe to the crude simplicity of the prairie. This is more than a regional novel, but it is overlong and drags at times.