Morning Tide

Widely praised in his native Scotland, Gunn (1891-1973) has been overlooked in the canon of world literature, an injustice that may be redressed by his American publisher's commendable program of U.S. reprints. His sixth novel to be released in the States by Walker (after Young Art and Old Hector ) sensitively and poetically evokes life in a Scottish fishing village and a closely knit family as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Hugh MacBeth. Like Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner, Gunn is a masterful storyteller who captures the particular ethos of a bygone world in his characters and settings. He mingles sense and sensibility in his descriptions of such key moments as the return of fishing vessels after a violently stormy night and the final supper before Hugh's older brother leaves for Australia; his perceptive portrayal of Hugh's confused feelings of love, anger and fear of his mother's possible death is equally fine. In the hands of this masterful writer, a simple story becomes a flash of poetry, at once violent and gentle, poignant in its tone and unique in its narrative. ( Feb. )