Run Jane Run

Readers who can take an unrelieved diet of misery will feast on this story of a woman whose second husband shot her first husband in the presence of her two daughters. Jane married Johnny when she was in high school; after having one child, they divorced because he was a poor provider, although they still loved each other. She then wed Michael, a violent, abusive man whose every punch and kick, with little interference from the Lexington, Ky., police, is detailed here. When Johnny tried to help Jane move out, Michael killed him and received a prison term requiring him to serve only six and one-half years. Jane is now completing college. As depressing as her personal history is the picture of life in Appalachia, where every man is a king, notes the author, and every woman must marry lest she become a pariah, shunned by other women as a sexual threat. Jane now lives in the Midwest, her exact location a secret, and works with battered women. 20,000 first printing; author tour. (Apr.)