DAISY KENYON

The author of The Walsh Girls, which stirred the critical pulses and rolled up a substantial -- though not sensational-sale for a first novel, with another psychological novel that seems to be more normal with none of the morbid strain of its predecessor. The setting shifts from Greenwich Village to Martha's Vineyard -- the period is contemporary, just before the war -- and the main story revolves around a young woman, an artist, who breaks off an affair of a eight years' standing to marry a man briefly encountered, through whom she finds that two people, both deeply hurt can find healing in each other. There's an interlude of three perfect holiday months of mutual discovery -- and then she meets Dn again, there's a violent flareup of passion on his part, and on here an almost pathological guilt complex which takes from her security, and leaves her ashamed, afraid. Pete is drafted --Daisy gets deeper into an unhappy detachment -- and finally, a serious operation and its aftermath, and a normal meeting with Dan, free her to go back to Pete before he sails. Sound study of emotional currents -- a convincing picture of a frequently encountered situation -- nothing salacious here, but the frank facing of existing facts in extramarital relations may be distasteful to some of your conservatives. Competent tailor made style. Easy book to sell or rent, what with the dearth of meaty, human novels -- ""not about the war"".