A Summer Ago

Of Cherokee descent, a Southern poet (Pellico Blue who might be termed ""the last of the Agrarians,'' George Scarborough, now in his 70th year, recreates in his first novel a pivotal summer in the coming of age of a young boy. Heavily autobiographical, the novel follows the discoveries, natural and metaphysical, experienced by Alan, the younger of the two McDowell brothers. With their resourceful mother and irascible father, the boys take their places in the cycle of farm life, wresting good from the Walden Valley. Alan, who is to become a writer, is attracted early to books and words, to the myths and stories told by elders and to the Good Book favored by his mother. The tension between learning and working the land is poignantly exposed when Alan sells a favorite bull to finance the books needed for entrance to the sixth grade. An authentic American voice animates this sensitive tale. (October)