NEXT OF KIN

Clean, wholesome and old-fashioned as one of those oatmeal slices with past and present sandwiched together in alternating insets, this tells the old family history of the Sturtevants of Maine which goes back to the 1660's -- many birthings and dyings. Now the only descendant Larry comes up to the home place with his barefoot gift Lisa: Larry whose mother died before he was a year had been bounced out of two prep schools; Lisa had undergone another kind of deprivation -- a mother who called her lamby-pie. Together, particularly when they participate in the death of old William, an unacknowledged Sturtevant, they find themselves and their place in life. . . . You won't have to say prithee twice -- the authoress emerita of As The Earth Turns will once again ""take holt"" of an older organic readership.