cover image Kinship

Kinship

Trudy Krisher. Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, $15.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-385-32272-0

This companion novel to Spite Fences examines another corner of Kinship, Ga., in the early '60s, this time focusing on the ironically named Happy Trails trailer camp. Fifteen-year-old Pert Wilson has always struggled, as has her brother, a high school drop-out, and their mother, who has raised the two children alone. Pert feels caught in a rut until her long-absent father unexpectedly returns, talking of exciting prospects for them all. Intoxicated by her father's charisma, Pert is taken wholly by surprise when his new business ventures cause pain for nearly everyone in the camp. Less expansive than its predecessor, which had a strong civil-rights theme, this lower-key novel deals mostly with personal issues. Pert and her neighbors live in their own closed world, and although the experience is claustrophobic at times--""Living in tiny places with names like Kozy Koach or Spartanette reminded you that you wasn't yet living a real life, only a miniature version of it""--proximity breeds a special form of ""kinship"" between the neighbors. Reinforcing this motif, Krisher alternates Pert's narration with brief sections in the voices of other ""trailerites""; while these sections often offer important insights and perspectives, the voices sometimes strain to be distinctive. Pert, however, is wholly convincing, and as Krisher slides into her shoes, she takes readers far from the beaten path. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)