The Drownt Boy: An Ozark Tale

``An abiding love for land, a love of strong, utilitarian beauty in horses, people, and books'' are the staff of life for Homer (Skies of Such Valuable Glass), whose journal of a taxing river voyage in the Ozarks is filled with lyrical, even mystical insights and asides. A three-day canoe trip at flood tide with his young stepson, Reese, is the vehicle for his wide-ranging thoughts grounded in his Ozark boyhood. While on the river, Homer is challenged not only by the demands of the present journey but also by a past that brought his family to the region. His tribute to the backwoods environment of his youth, when the ``Depression moved into the Ozarks, liked it, and retired there after World War II, letting the rest of the country go on with the boom times,'' is rich in appreciation of lore and language that is still tinged with Old English, and of a people in many ways unchanged for ages. (Nov.)