Home Fires Burning

Inman's first novel is refreshing evidence of what storytelling by an artist can be. Readers will find themselves living intimately with the people in a small Southern town during World War II. Jake Tibbetts owns and edits the newspaper, inherited from his grandfather, a hero of the Confederacy. Stubborn and cranky, Jake, in his 60s, risks his cherished friendships, even his marriage, by stubbornly insisting on directing everyone else's behavior. Pastine, his wife, is more than a match for him, though, when Jake is wrong about important issues; and so is their young grandson Lonnie. He has lived with the Tibbettses since the death of his mother in a crash, for which Jake blamed and disinherited his son Henry, the daddy Lonnie can't remember. There's a pitched battle between Jake and Pastine when he finds she's been corresponding with Henry, a soldier in France. But this is only one event in a wonderfully funny, terribly sad, vital novel. Surprises and insights abound on every page of a book readers won't want to finish and won't soon forget. (January 28)