RING IN THE NEW

This family chronicle is set in a small Indiana town on the Ohio River in the year 1900. Richly embroidered in all the minutiae of small-town housekeeping and living-all is seen through the eyes of seven year old Susan--youngest of Elder and Mrs. Campbell's five daughters. A turning point in all their lives--Papa returns to the youthful dream of writing, Mama is forced to accept on-coming middle age, and the girls work out their problems each in her own way, to the faint tune of distant off-stage rumblings presaging the great changes the new century would bring with it. An incredibly detailed story, apparently completely authentic on all counts, full of determinedly earthy dialogue and description that in general ring true. The style and plot, however, betray a certain immaturity.