THE STRANGERS WERE THERE

by John Bell Clayton ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 4, 1957

A posthumous collection of shorter pieces has its closest kinship with- of his three novels- Wait Son, October is Near and also has a certain unity in the small town of Colonial Springs in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia whose natives fill the pages here. This is a quiet country- memory and mood shadows the landscape and the Civil War is a faint but insistent echo. And so, from the Country Club to Jerkumtight Hollow, from the poolroom to the drugstore to the colonial houses on the hill, you will meet many of the local citizens:- old Bernie of the Star whose 42 years of dogged service are rewarded with a testimonial dinner and a set of golf clubs he will never use; the restless, shiftless Berry whose troubles make him the town drunk and bum; the Colonel whose long, unresolved courtship of genteel Miss Lou Ellen ends in marriage only a year before his death; sharp- eyed, keen-cared Cousin Mattie who is an ""eternal chastisement"" to a youngster; etc., etc. John Bell Clayton annotates these lives with affection- and they make up a pleasing sort of sketchbook. The market may be as fragmentary as the material.

Pub Date: June 4, 1957

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1957

Categories: FICTION