A SMALL TOWN by Shelby Hearon...

A SMALL TOWN by Shelby Hearon (Warner Books: $9.95). This critically acclaimed novel captures the pleasures and frustrations of life in a small Midwestern town after World War II. The daughter, niece and granddaughter of well-to-do doctors, Alma van der Linden is born into the town’s upper crust--or as much of an upper crust as a town as small as Venice, Mo., can be said to have. Venice is large enough to provide a plausible canvas for Hearon’s stories of jealousy and happiness, yet small enough to seem stultifying to Alma. Although she grows up within the confines of the town and becomes an integral member of its society, Alma also manages to remain an outsider, chronicling events for the local paper and in the private journals that form the novel. She also seems to stand outside her own family, observing them as would a stranger peering into a dimly lit house. Reflecting on the behavior of her son and daughter in high school, she remarks that “It amazes me that Beryl has not run off with some lout as my sister Greta did. In the same way, I am amazed that Jasper has not flunked out of school to spite his dad. It tugs at your heart: how carefully children do their little dances, prancing to the edge of provocation or disobedience but never going over.”