FIRE IN SUMMER

Unsparing Brutal realism, to the tradition of Caldwell and Faulkner, but less ironic than the one, less crude than the other, and with more compassion than either -- this is the story of a southern share cropper and his driving anger. ""Pa"" is forced to go on the rued, until he finds work with the powerful and inhuman Fallon to whom it means nothing that his laborers come down with malaria for lack of screens to their novels, and nothing that ""Pa's"" daughter, Jewel, is raped by the man who runs the commissary. ""Pa's"" anger against Fallon crystallizes itself in anger against the Negroes who share his conditions. Jewel runs away to Memphis; ""Pa"" goes on relief, and betters himself thereby. But when the relief project closes down, his brooding violence breaks out and he attacks a Negro road gang with an axe. Limited -- effective -- but contributes nothing to the picture of the underprivileged. A book that seems unlikely to override the lagging interest in novels of the kind.