The Sunnier Side: Arcadian Tales

Jackson's greatest claim to fame was The Lost Weekend, a novel about alcoholism that was the basis for the Oscar-winning 1945 movie of the same name. This collection of interconnected short stories, originally published in 1950, should boost the writer's posthumous reputation. The title story consists of two letters: one written to ``Charles Jackson'' by a reader who compliments him on a story in Good Housekeeping because it represents both ``the sunnier side of life, life as it is & should be'' and the small town of Arcadia, N.Y., she remembers from a few ``golden summers'' during her childhood. His response is sly: ``Someone has said that an unhappy childhood is a writer's gold mine but I don't know, growing up in a small town is just as good.'' The subsequent stories follow one boy, Don, and through him chronicle the foibles, pettiness and hypocrisies of Arcadia. In various pieces, Don recalls the downfall of a Canadian girl who was hired to work for neighbors one summer and had a fling with a cornet player; the town's tacit disapproval of a sexually abusive church choir leader; his brother's reaction to a ragged man who turns out to be a relative. Combining the warmth of mature reflection and the arrogance of adolescence, these are gratifying stories. And if a few are creaky with age, readers will still enjoy them, as they will enjoy Crowley's smart introduction drawing parallels between Jackson's work and his life. (Jan.)