VILLAGE OF GLASS

This lacks the bits, the undercurrent of irony, that kept her earlier books from being too ""folksy"". It falls into the danger of a slightly saccharine blend of sentiment and fantasy, of which there was enough -- but not too much -- in Uncle Snowball. However, she knows her New England village folk, and her imagination plays with the idea of America invaded and the resistance of a rural community. Her story concerns Robin Thorn, gifted glass blower, gentle dreamer-artist, who when war is declared rejoins the Air Force, regretting only that he has not fulfilled his dream of creating a glass village, fearing that he will destroy his civilized instincts, his creative talents. There is aurel whom he loves, and who carries on the fight behind the lines. Through her love, at the close, Robin, slightly wounded, returns home for Christmas, and is enabled to create perfection, the village of glass, which had eluded him before.