PURSLANEBernlce Kelly HarrisUniversify of North Carolina Press ($2.50).
Novels like Purslane stand a good chance of being lost in the shuffle. First, it is published by a university press; second, its title makes it sound like a book on botany. But Purslane is worth a top place on any publisher's list. The first novel of a North Carolina folk-play writer, Purslane will remind most readers of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' South Moon Under. Unsentimental, authentic, humorous, moving, it tells a tale of a North Carolina hill family at the turn of the century.
The Fullers of Pate's Siding and their kin have far...