TAVERN IN THE TOWN

An amusing, enthusiastic recalling of a summer season of running a tea room-restaurant on the Maine coast. Two thirty- ish women and a brother decide to save the country from the commercialism of a gas station and buy a broken down shack. By dint of backbreaking work, luck, patience, bribery and intimidation, the three get the tavern tastefully furnished and well enough equipped to pass inspectors. This is full of warm, gay anecdotes of burned meals, spilt trays, eccentric guests, original menus, struggles with butchers, fishermen, etc. A light book, full of gaiety (which sometimes seems forced), this emphasizes the satisfaction of hard work.