THE YANKEE BODLEYS

A more than promising, in fact an achieving ""first novel"" -- with the setting Massachusetts, and the three generations of Bodleys making an intricate pattern of their lives. A strange fate dogs their footsteps -- passions play them false -- pride brings them unhappiness and failure -- and yet theirs is not a depressing story, for in it is much of the granite and vigor and salty savor of New England itself. It just misses being a first rate novel; the ingredients are there, but selection seems to fail in the face of too great wealth, and one misses the focus of the Jalna books -- the concentration on a few characters. None the less, it is a good tale -- and the author worth watching.