HONEY IN THE ROCK

Between the Depression and the Power, Company, these doughty Vermonters are hard-pressed--but 16-year-old Linny sees the crisis through. And if the folksy jawing about their plight and pluck wasn't so interminable, if all the characters-stolid Polack and Tinpan-Alley Jew included--weren't such stereotypes, the book might pass muster as an on-the-spot reflection of the pro's and con's of progress. Orphan Linny wants to help Grandma and Grandpa keep the family homestead, and never mind what the Power Company can do for the town or its inhabitants, while boyfriend Jan Brokowski reasonably and realistically sees a future in its employ. One by one Linny's crusty relatives succumb and, in time, adjust--until the 1937 hurricane forces Grandma and Grandpa to submit, with somewhat startling ease, too. Linny, meanwhile, has discovered a gift for nursing which she can pursue without defecting; oldtimers and newcomers have developed some mutual interests; and the latter-day Vermont of summer visitors and year-round adjutants has taken tentative shape. On the larger social scene, authentic enough, but hokey close to home.