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SKIP TO MY LOU by William Martin Camp Kirkus Star

SKIP TO MY LOU

By

Pub Date: Aug. 23rd, 1945
Publisher: Doubleday, Doran

A novel of current as well as social values, this is a story of an ""Okie"" family in wartime. Lou Hoxie likes their life in Happy Holler, in the Arkansas O but her husband, Vigo, is restless. He periodically disappears and finally Lou decides to go with him on his next traveling, which turns out to be California and the lure of high wages in the shipyards. On their trip across country, Lou realises how different they are from others, but with dignity and honesty she outfaces all embarrassments. She takes pregnant Crisna under her wing, does her best when the baby is born at the shipyard where nothing has been done to house the influx of workers... She loses her only friend when the baby dies. Vigo and Thad, the eldest son, see that in spite of large wages they cannot buy security nor comforts. Vigo, caught in dependence on the favors of whorish? Ma, cannot even reap the privileges of a steady worker -- and it is ultimately who chances to be instrumental in destroying Lou's enemy and freeing her to return to her beloved Happy Holler. A strong woman of the hills, bringing goodness and kindness to those in need, wise in her homely knowledge, able to keep her integrity in spite of war production pressures. A bitter picture of boom shipyards... In the Fall of 1943 Retreat Hell! was one of the most convincing fictional handling of war material. Now comes this new -- and quite different book. The man can write. He has been night city editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and is now in the Marines. Watch him...