TURNING LEAVES

This is the Dodd, head prize novel -- but it seems scarcely of prize novel stature, to me. It is a good family story, with a somewhat new motive -- the modern recurrence of the generation by generation conflict between two sisters, Julia and Gabrialin Livingston. But in the handling of the plot and characters, one senses an immaturity of emotional realization. The book seems very young. There is a nice feel of place, in the picture of the family homestead, held to traditional standards through five generations of Livingstons. But today's representatives are strapped for money; Julia, the eldest daughter, is ambitious, ruthless, hard; Gabrielle, musically gifted, thinks she is willing to put everything aside for her music until she finds she loves the man who loves her sister; the other brothers and sisters are somewhat shadowy figures, backgrounds for the struggle for career and love and fulfillment between the sisters.