Books: Brook's Namesake

BROOK EVANS—Susan Glaspell—Stokes ($2.50).

Naomi and Joe are forbidden to "keep company," but they meet by the starbright brook, and plan to marry when the hay is in. Not till weeks after Joe has been killed horribly in an accident, does Naomi realize to her joy that he lives on in the child she bears. But her joyless parents, stiff-necked with the sour self-righteous Protestantism of the '80s, snatch up the offer of "noble" Caleb to take Naomi and give her bastard a name. Naomi suffers untold husbandly violations from Caleb, but comforts herself...