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282 Western American Literature Ellison imbibed the frontier spirit some seventy years ago in Oklahoma (late to join the states) where he saw whites and blacks join the Native Ameri­ cans in extraordinary cultural mingling. In his childhood, Ellison found that “The American frontier looks both ways: west toward freedom and chaos, east toward restriction and tradition.” There is help here for the casual reader of Invisible Man and help for the scholar concerning Ellison’s mysterious unpublished second novel, but Busby’s calling attention to the short stories is most significant (the definitive study has not been written), especially the folkloristic “Buster and Riley” trilogy set in Oklahoma. Busby does not dojustice to Ellison’s greatest story, “Flying Home,” but that is a personal quibble. In content, in clarity, and in style of writing, this volume ranks among the best ever of Twayne. JAMES W. BIRD East Texas State University Little Altars Everywhere. By Rebecca Wells. (Seattle: Broken Moon Press, 1992. 224 pages, $13.95.) Rebecca Wells carries her readers into the complex, richly funny and thoroughly heartbreaking lives of rural people in the deep South. Through the eyes of her sparkling young characters, Wells weaves a family fabric of such things as sibling loyalty, racial and gender roles, creeping alcoholism, self denial, family coping, and the odd nuances of regional Catholicism. In the end, Wells ties the frenetic story line together by reconsidering the trajectory set for the family through the lead character’s adult eyes. Though set in Louisiana, the themes of cultural isolation, the angst of old farm families, and the smothering struggle of making peace with an unusual childhood will also speak to those raised in small towns in the American West. Read this book cautiously; it will either lash or caress that place where you hold your memories of growing up. A. LEE FOOTE Lafayette, Louisiana Syd. By Deana Lowe Jensen. (Laramie, Wyoming: Jelm Mountain Press, 1991. 294 pages, $13.95.) Syd, by Deana Lowe Jensen, weaves parallel tales of two young people separated and forced by bloody circumstance to go into hiding—Syd changing her sex andJake his name. I wondered while reading the novel how much of the story is autobiographical; whether Ms. Jensen plays jazz piano in a band and what she had to do with the RAF during World War II. She does a goodjob with both subjects and the reader can get caught up in the action. I enjoyed the presence of thejournalist Emma who wears worn tweed suits, ...

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