CALL OF THE LAND

Honesty of feeling is not enough to redeem the fumbling style in a rural story of the Tunis genre. Dave Carson, war hero, returns to his Arkansas home in 1946, full of convictions of his responsibility for his fellow man. He is advised by the mayor to clean house at home first, and takes it more seriously than it was intended. He organized a fiery 4-H group to lead the way to individual and local reform. The earnest message of the book tells how 4-H revitalizes the lives of the young people:- a paroled city boy who proves his virtues as he raises a champion steer; a paralytic reclaims life and the use of his limbs and reaffirms his love for the girl next door. The book shows lack of finish in the writing, it is full of sentimental aphorisms, but it is packed with situations, romances, fairs and contests, storms, dances -- factors that catch and hold reader interest. The 4-H angle is a good sales point.