A MEASURE OF DUST

by Steven Turner ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1970

In spite of the referrals--To Kill A Mockingbird; Red Sky At Morning--inapposite except for the general geographical bearings, Mississippi during the depression, A Measure of Dust adds up on its own terms as a pleasantly sentimental, spunky season of enlightenment in a youngster's thirteen-year-old life. Mark Torrance is a precocious thirteen, and, leading his class at an old-fashioned Presbyterian boarding school in Choctaw County, he's allowed to hitchhike home for the week before the graduation ceremonies. He's not sure why--actually the headmaster wants him to dun his father for the tuition arrears. On the way home he witnesses one adulterous episode at a stopoff and is exposed to horny jokes and joints. Once home there's the upsetting revelation that while his father is drinking up the money they don't have (he's a bricklayer), his mother has found another kind of solace. But none of it is irreparable and at the close--with another crushing disappointment at graduation--Mark is unhappily wiser in the ways of the world. The background touches are true in this part of the bible belt where sex and salvation are running a very close race and Mr. Turner's first novel has a nice and easy appeal. More than most.

Pub Date: June 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION