WIND OFF THE WATER

There are no pastel, no pastoral touches for this story of a Maine lobster fishing town, the discipline of isolation and monotony, of lean returns for dangerous livelihoods, of restrained pleasures and vigilant morality. Here are the Stroud brothers; Obed and Sarah, decent old-fashioned folk distressed by their daughter, Sarah Ann, who is going around with Andrew Sprague, ex-rum runner and bounder; Warren, whose wife Vernie, discontented, carping, cheap, is out slutting the night he is trapped in a northwestern snowstorm; Millroy, the youngest, and his poised, pretty, Lima. But it is largely Vernie's story, as her cheap availability finally makes Warren drive her from the house...and the story too of Sarah Ann, as she persuades her family to accept the now reformed Andrew. Hard terms -- and words -- for a realistic picture of an inbred, close-webbed way of life.