FAMILY FORTUNES

A success story of different ingredients, this tells of the crises in the lives of the Brackenwoods, living small in a large family house, in Kentucky. Simon and Hattie dream, in spite of their poverty, of a little modern house; Simon's sister Martha, brimming over with adages, is devoted to both house and family history; their daughter Lou Belle leaves her schoolteaching when she is the cause of a bloody quarrel between twin brothers. Nearby land and some of theirs is bought by the wealthy Wilkens of New York City and when Mrs. Wilkens wants to dismember the house to beautify her new home, it is Martha, with antiquarian-minded school friends behind her, who blocks the vandalism. How the family opens an inn.whose fame brings back some of their famous relatives, how Lou Belle marries a young, contemporary Prince Charming, how even Mrs. Wilkens capitulates -- all this leads up to their home becoming a state shrine. The contrast of past splendors and present insignificance, the bondage of family history and pennilessness, amplify this story of good luck and give it a solider structure than might be expected. A Book League selection.