CLEARING IN THE SKY

Short stories of the Kentucky hills, where men still live a primitive, frontier life. Though the setting- and some of the characters- link the stories together, each story is complete in itself. The country's ""champeen eater"" takes on a glossy black rooster in the matter of corn grains downed; a wistful hilltop lover of things wheeled ""lifts"" a temporarily unused steam shovel; a skinny beanpole wrestles a bear to feed the wife and kids; two morticians burn up the switchbacks to a family feud; a high school gridiron hero learns the difference between two campus queens; brutality breaks through a story of a caged wildcat and hounds matched against it. True flavor of the hills and an oblique light touch on accents and dialect characterize the whole.