Shadowy South

SWAMP SHADOW--Katharine Hamill-- Knopf ($2).

Promises made by most first novels are rash. But the promise of Katharine Hamill's Swamp Shadow has good collateral behind it. Her tale of poor whites on Mississippi's Gulf Coast is neither dreary case-history nor melodrama plastered together with notebook dialect, but an ably written, objectively presented story of some forgotten men & women of the U. S.

Her white trash are authentic but attractive. Old Man Roper, unregenerate patriarch, had fathered a rascally and shiftless brood. Thomas lived off in the swamp by himself, distilling shinny and drinking what he did not have to sell. Bart had not been improved by going to the War. He got a half-wit girl in trouble, killed her father and pinned the murder on her. Only decent ones in the family were Rachel, who took good care of Old Man Roper and her pining sisters, and Cully, her half-nephew, who liked engines, planned to be a mechanic.

But swampy circumstance was too much for them. Rachel fell in love with a fey young farmer, Bill, who left her to mind the place while he lived a masculine life of hunting and drinking. And Cully found he wanted Rachel, his half-aunt, more than anything else. Rachel was flattered but firmlv faithful. When at last Bill came home and found Cully there, they had a fight, and Bill was killed. Rachel was going to turn Cully in to the sheriff, but Old Man Roper had better sense.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.