EVERGREEN

A serenely bubbling crockpot of a three-generational family saga, beginning at the turn of the century in little Anna's Polish/Jewish village and ending with wealthily widowed Anna, an American immigrant success story, holding her first great-grandchild. The aptly named Ms. Plain holds the straightforward narrative to an even heat, with all the meditations of the principals in the comfortably accessible range--although dreadful events batter Anna's family. Throughout her marriage to good, gentle, hard-working Joseph, Anna must live with her hidden passion for Paul, son of the Fifth Avenue family for whom green-girl Anna works as a maid. And Paul fathers Anna's daughter Iris--doting Joseph will never know. Son Maury, married to an old-family WASP, will die with his wife in an auto crash--indirectly the result of their painful social limbo. Their son Eric, torn between two cultures, will be killed, a hero, in Israel. Iris' happy marriage barely survives the haunting memory of her husband's martyred first wife, victim of the Holocaust. And Anna's grandchildren face, with varying degrees of success, the turmoil of the Sixties. Through the joy and angst, Anna and Paul meet and part but never again touch. Oy and alas. Told with honest, unpretentious warmth--a soothing main course for the dynasty faithful.