Books: Come, Die Along With Me

THE WOMEN ON THE PORCH—Caroline Gordon—Scrlbners ($2.50).

In a decaying Tennessee mansion, three women brooded in their porch chairs. Crazy Grandma Lewis mumbled to an imaginary visitor that her father was away "in the service of the Confederacy." Spinster Aunt Willy dreamed about her chestnut stallion—the only creature she could bring herself to love. Cousin Daphne (her bridegroom had abandoned her on their wedding night when he found she had no money) toyed with the more poisonous specimens of her beloved collection of rare mushrooms. Suddenly the rank growth that ringed the old...