CONTRARY PLEASURE

Not quite as tight a narrative as Cancel All Our Vows (1953), this spreads its interest over the lives and loves of the four Delevans- and their children, and is an assured and accomplished reconnaissance of a middle western, middle class community- with the comforts- but not the security- which money can buy. Benjamin Delevan, the oldest brother, heads the family and its textile business and at 50 is nagged by the notion that the "good years and the taut muscles" have gone- but where. Quinn, in his late thirties, inept and impotent vis a vis his wife's aggressive desirability, finds a certain rejuvenation with a girl in the office. Alice, his twin, after 14 years of marriage and a sense of restless inadequacy, finds a new and never known vitality in her relationship with her husband. Robbie, the youngest, returns home with a bride. Brock, Ben's son, has been bounced out of college for stealing money and Ellen, his sister, straightens out on her own. . . . All of this is a not too bella vista of the suburban set, of human nature which is both recognizable and fallible, and there are some sweet-sour notes of personal discernment and disillusion. Rentals, certainly (but without censure), and a women's market as well.