THE MAGIC FALLACY

A natural note, which is a young and disarming one, to this ""novella"" of the magic fallacy of youth- that nothing in life is ugly. And its loss, in the ruin of a sixteen year old boy, is told through the eyes of Joe who at thirteen only half witnessed, half understood the corruption of Pershing Williams, the boy next door. From the time when pershing's mother walked out of the house with another man, to his father's remarriage to Rosella, just twenty, a hellcat and a tease, to the days and nights when Pershing and Rosella are left alone, the inevitable climax breaks and Pershing is left to face a deadening guilt in the years ahead... For all the gentleness, the suggestiveness of the handling, there's a definite tension here. The long short story is however not too easily saleable.