LUCY GAYHEART

From the sales point of view, this new novel of Miss Cather's bids fair to rank with her best selling titles, though one rather doubts its claim to immortality, when placed beside such gems of literature as her Shadows on the Rock or A Lost Lady. It is a vividly etched characterization, the story of a girl born to live up to the promise of her name, and cast by fate into tragedy through her romantic love for the musician at whose shrine she lays her heart. The scene shifts from a Western town to Chicago -- a tiny slice of Chicago when its artistic consciousness was groping for realization -- and back to the town. A few rapid strokes etch in the background, one feels the life and atmosphere of the small town, with its smothering conventions -- by the very paucity of description. Most of the characters are lightly drawn, only serving to bring Lucy herself into sharper relief....The market for a new Willa Cather is readymade.