DAN'L BOONE KISSED ME

The author of The Gabriel Horn (1951) provides pleasant reading with a story set in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase country in the 1840's. The coming of a Jew to Calvary stirs the curiosity of young Zeff Caldwell and his contemporaries; it is the sign of prosperity to-come to Clint Wheelock and Zeff's father; it is doom according to an itinerant Mohammedan; to Grandma the Jew is Dan'l Boone, long remembered. The Caldwell household is ruled by Pappy Duke, whose desire for respectability causes his pretty sister and his less forceful brother distress. Times change -- the sister finds an Army husband, the brother prosperity; Duke's son marries the daughter of a man Duke considered riff-raff, and Duke changes his mind. The revolt of the family and irrespectability give Duke a chance to recoup -- he prevents a lynching and ensures his own standing as the man to represent Calvary in the Legislature. Tenderness and humor, though at times somewhat forced, tone the story, again told by a young narrator -- in which character is stated rather than sketched, the issues remain unresolved.