WALK LIKE A MORTAL

There seems to be a good deal of preoccupation on the part of novelists with the effects on children of the disagreements of parents. Here's another novel based on that theme. Mr. Wickenden is at his best in presenting realistic portraits of adolescence, -- first in The Running of the Deer, now in Walk Like a Mortal, Gabe, in this new book, is as convincing a drawing of a seventeen year old as I can remember, and the whole routine of High School life, as the story of his emotional upheavals and his family problems is etched across it, is extremely well done. Middle class, small town near New York -- very realistically presented, with a skilful avoidance of the obvious ending. The handling of the mother, bored with her husband, with domesticity, with her failure to achieve social position, is not so convincingly done, and the father somehow never quite comes to life. But the author is young -- and wisely uses to best advantage what he best knows. Not a book for wide sales, however.