In This Our Life

Here is a novel of modern times, ending a few days before the outbreak of the war in Europe. The scene is a Virginia Tidewater city. The members of the Timberlake family-mother, father, and the two young women who are their daughters are the central characters of an intensely dramatic story, dramatic not simply for its happenings, but for the people who cause them. They are true, vital creations, these characters, and they make the action, precipitate the crowding events of "In This Our Life." Then, too (as J. Donald Adams has said of Miss Glasgow, "She has not been merely a transcriber of life but an interpreter as well"), the book gathers its special intensity as the chief theme grows through the story. The fascinated reader sees unfolding before him an analysis of the modern mind and temper as exhibited in this family and their community. Realism informed with understanding, wit tempered with compassion, these are the qualities which have always distinguished Ellen Glasgow's work; never have they been displayed more powerfully. And, as always, the story marches to the rhythm of that close-woven, epigrammatic, polished prose, one of the great styles of our time.