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MILLBROOK by Della T. Lutes Kirkus Star

MILLBROOK

By

Pub Date: Dec. 2nd, 1938
Publisher: Little, Brown

Though this is not strictly a ""must"" book, it is being listed as such for I feel that there are many who will frankly confess, as I do, to having a weakness for these incomparable regional gems, in which Mrs. Lutes recaptures the minutest particulars of life in rural Michigan in the late '70's and early '80's. The Country Kitchen and Home Grown carried us into the heart of a childhood spent on a farm; now in Millbrook we share with her memories of the typical village to which the family moved while she was still a little girl. There is less of the all-too-tempting concentration on things edible and more of human interest, as she traces -- through the experiences, chiefly vicarious, of two little girls, and through interpretation and reappraisal in later life, the pulse of village life, until one feels on intimate terms with the villagers and the country neighbors roundabout -- just as one learned to know at first hand the elderly father (she almost outdoes Glarence Day here) and the wonderful mother who knew just how far to feed his ego and how far to check it. Millbrook is delightful; in its own way just as good and a very definite contribution to American background literature. It has a homely informality that makes one feel one is listening to Della Lutes talking about her childhood; it has the very taste and feel of the times.