FOOL'S ERRAND

City man to country living shorn of glamour, in the story of the artistic, marital and economic issues that confront Martin when, with wife and daughter, he moves to Vermont. With the need for money yapping at his heels, he puts aside serious painting, and takes a job on doing a book jacket for a stuffed shirt author's book. But the author's wife offers a fling at passion -- the outsider's way of life as contrasted with the local provides alcoholic escape -- and murder by accident drives Martin to suicide...Wide compass for his story, with subplots involving young Seth, whose hardihood and honesty are in contrast with Martin's hazy searchings; Levarett and his corruscating criticism of himself and his neighbors; the game warden, wise in the ways of people; Martin's wife whose love for husband and daughter blind her to truths, all providing variety of interest in the telling. The obverse side of urban to rural picture, by the author of A House in the Country.