THE BISHOP PATTERN

When Liza Bishop, orphaned at seven, is deposited on her Aunt Vera's doorstep, the highest and mightiest doorstep in a Florida town, she is in for some rough going. Aunt Vera, who considers only God her equal, uses whatever weapon is at hand to keep it that way. An unusual mixture of spirited childhood and adult modes somewhat denatured of their tragic consequences through the seven-to-eleven--year-old eye of the narrator, highlighting eccentricity over emotion, felt but filtered through a child's comprehension.