LIGHT AS THE MORNING

Leveled from 13 year old Les McCoin's eyes, this contrasts Nashville's old families and their tribal customs with those who still live happily in the country, far from the city's complexities. Les wants to compete with Fogg, two years older and far more indulged; he hero-worships pretty Kitty Loner although she is not making the grade in society; he is not agreeable about attending the reunion of his father's family about to move from their old home because of the new Cumberland dam. At the reunion, his world turns topsy turvy again and, in helping Kitty elope with an outsider, he takes a big step to maturity and is a ready partisan when she lines the right people in Nashville on her side. The promise of a Catcher in the Rye is not sustained but the sharp edges of a teen age world do not dull as the story takes a blither turn. Pleasurable.