THE LONG LANE

Ken Brubaker, a boy of about twelve, is the sole representative of the younger generation in his family, and around him the affection of his family revolves. Then comes the crash -- the adored uncle from California and the lovely mother run away together and the serenity of the Iowa homestead is broken. As the story unfolds, one grows into an awareness of the hold of a place over human beings, of the tensions of emotional values disrupted, of an adjustment that is sound and human. It is less a story of the farm than of the people on it -- a story perhaps more in the mood and tempo of Stranger's Return than anything else he has written. Not as fine a book as State Fair; not as important a book as Buckskin Breeches -- but good middle register Stong.