THE GLOUCESTER BRANCH

Sam Fayles is chafed by the thirteen year itch. Through Alice, a young girl who works at the Atlantic, he's able to deduct about fifteen years and remember some of the excitement he had once felt for his wife Julia. Or was it just admiration for her puritan-patrician background? He is also restless in his job, an investment firm, which results in his attempt to underwrite a speculative longshot, one Marty Chalk, and his takeover of a vestigial textbook house. Chalk is a hustler-operator, and before the end of a long weekend, he has secured Julia's sponsorship and spent a purely prurient evening with her (Bostonians are not always so proper). Sam is then readier to accept ""the well-kept gardens of a life where small pleasures and sound decisions grew,"" writes the whole thing off as he settles back into domesticity and spends the evening with his check book... Not as fresh in touch or situation as Wilder Stone (1960) but still personable characters, an environment with a distinct definition, and a situation where familiarity breeds recognition more than anything else. Bona ride popular entertainment.