MAY BRETTON

by Robert Raynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

If this had a spark of humor one might think it a modernized Neither Maid, Wife Nor Widow -- a satire on the pure milkmaid. As it stands, with that theme outmoded, it strikes me as simply a very bad book. May is of the earth, earthy; her love is wrapped up in her New England land and trees; she goes to Havana with her boss to earn $3,000 to pay off the mortgage back home. When her childhood sweetheart finds her out, the wretched pattern of retribution begins. The town is censorious when a married man finds her too obviously attractive; gossip builds mountains from melchills; May finds her new boss very attractive and takes too much for granted. And her emotions play her false, and give plenty of ammunition to the enemies at home, -- Donald and his mother, Paul -- both men she had spurned; and Eliot's wife-in-name-only. At the end, Eliot tries to bring back Donald to legitimatize Eliot's unborn child; Donald kills Eliot and dies of exposure; Paul takes action against May on grounds of ""moral turpitude"" and May seeks shelter with a religious fanatic who makes her his commonlaw wife in the very church that had denied her. The Raynolds of Brothers of the West will not reestablish himself with this.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1944

Categories: FICTION