PATIENCE AND SARAH

Suggested by the lives of an early 19th century painter (Mary Ann Willson) and her ""companion"" (Miss Brundidge), this begins as a New England sampler stitched in a plumb plain fashion but before very long the air is thickened with sapphic sentimentality. In alternating insets, Patience White, spinster-sister in constant attendance on her brother and his ever increasing family, and Sarah Dowling, whose father thought of her as a ""pretty fair boy"" and forced her to run away, tell the story of their love for each other, their decision to go to Greene County, New York, have their own home and their own land, and the achievement thereof. This takes place at a time when it was not only a man's world but also unthinkable to survive without a man and you can attach whatever contemporary connotations you wish in order to justify its slight appeal. Particularly long after lines such as ""I felt my heart melt and drip off my fingertips"" have smudged the print.