Leaving Locke Horn

the long version

Casey sensitively describes the personal crises of three young people who reside with their working-class families in the mill town of Locke Horn, Maine. While spending the summer at nearby Handsman's Cove with her kin, Ruth, a diffident and introspective adolescent, becomes acquainted with Forrest Hungerford and his enigmatic sister, Evelyn. Both are capable, troubled artists who yearn to practice their craft in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of New York City. Presently, however, Forrest grapples with the resentment he feels for his father, and restlessness plagues Evelyn because she has "no prospects, no plans." While these siblings search for their geographical and emotional places in the world, Ruth learns of her unwed sister's pregnancy, an event that complicates Ruth's increasingly sensuous feelings for Forrest. Casey ably evokes the rugged life in rural Maine, as well as the traumas of youth, but the plot moves at a desultory pace and lacks definition.--Publishers Weekly