A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
By
A smarting self-exposure in which Elizabeth, on the eve of a fortieth birthday, listens to the night music of the past while her self-indulgent relatives carry on a chattering counterpoint in the present. For Elizabeth, who had always nursed along an unacknowledged adoration of her father- now dead, faces for the first time a weakening of that love, recognizes what Ralph Chapin's amused, proprietary domination had cost her. There was Ted, her first love, who didn't wait; Jack Allen, married, the only one to tag the interference of her father's image; Scott Harris, the richest boy in town, from perfect Eagle Scout to perfect gentleman to perfect neuter, whom Elizabeth would have married if only to marry, had he not died leaving a perfect memory for all save Elizabeth. ... An assured, accomplished reflection of a best-face-forward-facade which submerges private futility, here the velvet glove conceals a sharpened claw, provides feminine fiction which is worldly, knowledgeable.