A SCOTS QUAIR

Viewers of the Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Sunset Song--the first book in this 45-year-old trilogy--will recall and recognize the thick Scots dialogue, but may be surprised to find that the narrative too is awash in the music that Gibbon sought to make out of the speech rhythms of Kinraddie country. Keening, phrase-heavy sentences teem with unfamiliar locutions. But a brief glossary is appended, some help in following the WWI-1930s fortunes of Chris Guthrie and her kin--loving prisoners of the land, the windy rains (Cloud Howe--Book 2), and the stony reminders of the past (Grey Granite--Book 3). Further TV versions may arouse interest in this saga--a British chestnut but long out-of-print here--but it's far more demanding than the bucolic romances covering similiar terrain.