White Colors

This is a novel of delight and sensitivity, of the pathos and possible splendor of individual self-realization. It begins with an autumn week in the life of Richard Ufford at thirteen, in school, anguished by those miseries and trivial immensities which in adolescence make the difference between belonging and exile. Like everybody, Richard inherits values which he must question. His father, a figure of power and style, is powerless to understand, much less guide, Richard. In a kind of underwater clarity the boy sees all the creatures of his surroundings, whether he loves them or dismisses them. With good humor and cold irony, he examines the values of his school, his church, his library, his hospital, his job, and his family. It's in the natural world of woods, streams, light and shade, rarely so beautifully described, that Richard is most himself. On the dial of love, his indicator moves from near-incest with his sister to his nature-wild and lyric love for Leslie, his true girl. F. D. Reeve encloses this drama within a story whose time limit is a single week, day by day. Each episode holds us fascinated, even as we reach forward to know its consequence in the full story. White Colors is a feat of literary virtuosity, a profound and loving presentment of life that places its author in the forefront of his literary generation.