THE KIN OF ATA ARE WAITING FOR YOU

Privately published in the Bay Area in 1971, this certainly deserves commercial resurrection. A confused, angry representative of ""civilization"" finds himself on the serene island of Ata--""the center of the world""--where twelve ""kas"" of twelve people live out the necessities of a bare agricultural existence with a grace and joy based on the principle of giving. The ""kin"" (people) of Ata preserve a remarkable self-knowledge through dreams, in which they also sadly observe the cruel and wretched ""exile kingdoms"" of the rest of humanity. The cynical anonymous narrator (fresh from the commission of a crime in the exile-world) gradually finds his place among the kin. Bryant does not escape the goody-goody qualifies of utopian homily, but her central premises (the giving, the dreaming) are presented with simplicity and strength.