DREAMER'S CLAY

AbbÉ's first novel, Voices in the Square (Coward, McCann), was a warm, wide-awake portrait of a small New England town. This one seems to lack the guts of the first. It is handled in a gentle, dreamy, almost unworldly manner. Once again a country village, one which has lost heart, and vitality, through years of depression. Mark, a sculptor, determines to restore faith and courage, and succeeds in arousing the villagers from defeatism to positive action. There is a romance incident to the story. Essentially, it is a moral little tale, but too obviously inspirational, but a bit too saccharine.