ONE OF THE CHILDREN IS CRYING

The dead resurrecting the living--"" not quite, since this reunion of the sons and daughters at the death of the dreadful old man who has left his mark on all of them explores and exposes but does not salvage them. The novel which takes place from the time when he has a stroke until he is returned to the dust of a southern farming state is savagely mortifying and revealing for all concerned: for Erin, a spinster at 47, ""denied and disowned"" by all of them except Robin, the next in line, castrated by his stud father to the point where he has become an inveterate lush: Priscilla, the ""crazy"" one and Rhoda, the ""icy"" purposeful realist; Spur, beautiful and successful but empty; and Millicent, lovely to look at but escaping to other women, a ""Freudian gem... beautifully boxed--and blocked."" As are they all, maimed bodies and souls on a closed emotional circuit; but somehow and nevertheless the novel succeeds to a degree in involving the reader even where there is little left to redeem.