FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE

An always appealing and often funny account of the not so happy childhood of the daughter of a True Believer preacher, who was firm in his dedication, and equally firm with his sometimes wavering, sometimes mutinous daughter. Young Hannah, whose loyalty to the ct was fraught many times with embarrassment, who frequently dreamed of being an Episcopalians -- ""the exquisite, unattainable Episcopalians"" -- who was to find her first humiliation at school, who wore long black stockings and who knew many years of no adornments and no amusements, had moments and moments of misery. This follows her father's itinerary, from Pardue Bible College in Illinois in the '20's, to Arizona where, if there were God's chosen people, it was not God's country, to California and finally Denver, where the True Believers, one of the noisier faiths, quieted down as they gained in stature and acceptance. And at last the True Believer college, where she met Clovis Smith, who was outside the fold (he smoked), and whom she was to marry, and where she reconciled these years of chafing at the narrow and strait when she found that ""God, like Father, at last wore a loving face"". Captivating.