THE ISLANDClaire SpencerSmith & Haas ($2.50).
Five years ago Claire Spencer caught many a U. S. reader's eye with her first novel, a black-avised melodrama called Gallows' Orchard. Because its youthful angularities seemed to hint of power in its not-yet-matured bone, critics reserved judgment, hoped to see its promise performed in Author Spencer's second book. Last week, after reading The Island, they wrote off Author Spencer as a case of arrested artistic development.
Author Spencer writes violently, too often as one beating the air. Metaphors meant to be mighty come out merely mixed: "Soon...
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