STORM AT THE JETTY

The storm comes, the storm goes; the jetty stands. That's the sum and substance of the experience conveyed here--an experience assigned to a named boy, Levi Farber, who likes to sit ""in the cockpit of the rocks, watching a lone ship and the rolling sea,"" but otherwise unindividuated and intrinsically plotless. Levi, that is, knows enough to rush to the house when the storm rises, so the drama is all in the pictures of darkening skies, crashing waves, bolts of lightning, and--then --""startling quiet."" What does somewhat set this apart from other such recreations is the near-presence of a city (recognizable as New York). And that bit of suggestiveness--the wild storm, and the solitude, juxtaposed against the towers of a metropolis--will perhaps resonate with some city kids. . . though most youngsters don't pick up vibrations of this kind until after the picture-book age.