MY AMERICAN

Not in Stella Gibbons' usual sharp-tongued, coldly witty manner, this sympathetic romance of an English girl and an American boy who were to carry a childhood encounter into maturity. The girl is English, daughter of a self-absorbed journalist who dies when she is twelve, leaving her an orphan whose one escape is in her writing. This bears fruit when she becomes a successful pulp writer. The boy was embittered by an accident in youth, he deserts his home and profession, and hides out with a gangster. Eventually, they meet, pick up the threads of childhood -- and marry. Nicely detailed, somewhat wistful romance, which should rent well. It seems utterly unlike her other books; is it, perhaps, done with tongue in cheek?