HEAVEN FACES WEST
By
A fairly artless jog trot through the lives of the Downer family in 1896, in California. Lucinda leaves her husband, a self appointed preacher, fanatical in his faith, and returns to her parents, Lige and Ellen, for comfort and assurance, gets a job as pianist and assistant in a small resort not too far away, sends her daughter Mitty to her sister-in-law's, and leaves her son with his grandparents. Lucinda's sister Kate finds a husband with nine children, her other sister Rosemary finally makes up her mind about marrying her faithful beau, and Lucinda herself has a fairly emotional time over the blacksmith, Jack Hartfield. But with Rosemary's wedding, a fire at the Downer home, and the climax of a sulky race, Lucinda, her children and her new husband are reunited for a future together. The author of Mother Wore Tights (Whittlesey, 1944) sustains a nice family note and period feel of clothes, customs and events.