SOUTH FROM YESTERDAY

An eerie and strangely incomplete tale, with some of the qualities that made Moon Tide distinctive, but without the convincing realism, the gusto, the tenderness that were qualities of the earlier book. Once again the central character is a bum --but Robertson does not build sympathy for him as he did before. Milo deserves more than he gets, one feels, as he runs away from trouble, accepts the toss of the cards that made him twice fugitive from justice, used the people who befriended him, and even married a girl because it meant $1,000 in pocket. The story ends -- on a lighthouse island -- with the couple linked by common tragedy and disaster, with three men dead, and an uncertain future. And yet there's a note of unity and hope! There are eccentric and original characters, but few likable ones. There are weird twists and macabre situations. Robertson can write -- but he doesn't know his Atlantic coast as he does his Pacific, and his story doesn't carry conviction. But it has moments.