PEOPLE OF THE VALLEY

A regional novel, with a warmer quality and more sympathetic handling than its predecessor. Dust Within the Rock (Liveright). A novel of the Southwest, of a valley of New Mexico, before the water control projects disrupted the lives in a remote valley. The life of Dona Maria, born to a lowly life as goat girl, but destined to reflect the life of the valley and the hills. She lived with a gringo soldier and bore his child; then with a Mexican, who ultimately died during the flagellant ritual of the Penitentes. She was the most successful grower, the sharpest trader in the valley, and she tried to hold the valley for her people, when the government wanted to put through a dam and was forcing eviction. There she stayed, alone, to die. A lyrical tale, with the feel of the land and the people. Not for a wide public.