THE WATERS AND THE WILD

A damp piece about the friendship of two East Anglian boys during W.W. II, delivered with an adult's nostalgic recollection of quite beautiful countryside and a ruthless rendering of local dialect which sidesteps whenever possible the accusative case (""I'll murder he!""). Harry, eleven, and Ben, a year younger, find their special secret hideout on a lake island, where, as the seasons change, they build a raft, monitor swans, at last catch the gigantic pike they've claimed for their own, and endure the incursions of a disagreeable schoolmate and his curiously affectionate friend, a soldier (there's a fulsome homosexual episode observed by Ben). At the close Harry dies in a hospital of consumption and Ben, weathering through, conquers his grief. The author's avuncular perspective and the dialect may prove an obstacle for those who might like to read he.