GRANDMOTHER O KYO

Gentle and sentimental little story of a pleasantly authoritative grandmother, approaching her 88th birthday, and of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Once again the author of A Daughter of the Samurai contrasts the old and the new, with the major events and the little ins and outs of everyday life. The book closes with an elaborate birthday celebration -- and with the old matriarch's death. Pleasant but pallid.