Books: Ripple

EVA GAY—Evelyn Scott—Smith & Haas ($2.50).

Authoress Scott likes a big canvas. In Migrations and The Wave, she filled a panoramic picture of the Civil War with hundreds of figures, a meticulously colorful background. A Calendar of Sin made No. 3 of her U. S. historical series. Eva Gay is not quite so big (only 799 pages), but its figures are few, its background so subdued that attention is glaringly focused on the three main characters. Many a wearied reader will not be attentive to the bitter end.

Eva Gay was a small-town only child,...