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THE SWIFT CLOUD by Sigrid de Lima

THE SWIFT CLOUD

By

Pub Date: Feb. 18th, 1952
Publisher: Scribner

A bleak playback, in time- and through the lives of those concerned, of the tragedy of idiocy, and the imprint of guilt and isolation, condemnation and destruction it leaves on those who are involved. For Clyde Cassen, arrested for the murder of his non- Henry- whom he alone loved, looks back on the years which preceded Henry's accidental death; on Gertrude, his wife, who couldn't love Henry though she spent her life caring for him, and who died a broken woman; on Lorraine, their daughter, who had never been free of the social stigma Henry's condition aroused; on the time they had sent him away- to an institution- for Lorraine's sake, only to bring him back; and to the finality of the death Clyde did not cause but could not regret, and his flagellant recognition of dereliction and failure as Henry's death brings its release too late- for Gertrude, for Lorraine.... Humanity, at its most hapless, in a portrayal which is less obscure than the earlier Captain's Beach but which is still very limited in its ultimate appeal.