A SUNDAY WORLD

by Camilla R. Bittle ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 29, 1966

A Sunday World, ""contained and orderly...a world of places and everything in its own place"" was what thirty-year old Rosemary Storie clung to in Louiston, North Carolina. She had grown up in its presence, but it began to slip away with Pearl Harbor, when her older brother Cal went off to war and never came back. It changed further when the family's Negro cook and general retainer Ophelia died, and her place was taken but not filled by Lavendar, with a husband in New York, one year of college, and three children of her own. Then came Korea, then the issues of civil rights, when demonstrations over the trial of Sampson Jefferson for raping and murdering Bebe McQuillan brought the country's newspapers to Louiston and made Louiston look at itself. Meantime, Rosemary, with three children and a lawyer husband who saw fit to take Jefferson's case, is fighting to maintain the old balance. Her husband Neville tells her justice comes first, ""feelings come afterward,"" but when Ophelia's son is beaten to death in the jail bullpen by members of the white citizen's council, Rosemary knows it is because she has broken the code of ""taking care of your own."" Even so, it comes through to her at last that the Lady Bountiful role must go, and she faces the new day bravely. Camilla Bittle is working in familiar territory without apologies. If it has received more dramatic and more skilled literary treatment, this is still a feeling, intelligent portrayal of an attractive, likable young woman's existence and aspirations, which other women will recognize and respond to.

Pub Date: April 29, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION