VACANCY ON INDIA STREET

A marital crisis, racial tension, the conflict between generations in a Main Line suburb, and a husband straying in his effort to overcome his impotence, all contribute to the donnee here. The rift deepens with the advent of new Negro neighbors, for the wife is ambivalent toward them while the husband is actively hostile. But she weathers the storm with the aid of an artist uncle and an Interracial Council worker. The story is capably interlaced with a history of the town's first families who clutch their traditions in the face of gradual change outside and the incursion of the ""undesirables."" However, the Negroes are only labelled, their motives and views receiving perfunctory treatment. Indeed the Plot is more complicated than any of the characters. And so the straightforward style, the dabs of sex and intrigue, the study of family relations provide a readable middle class, middle weight entertainment say at the level of Stephen Birmingham (Barbara Greet, etc.)