Pretensions

480 pages. Cover worn. Spine frayedReviews In her highly successful novel Evergreen and the miniseries that fol lowed, Plain told the story of immigrant Anna Friedman and her love for Paul Wer ner. Here the focus shifts to Paul's aunt, Hennie DeRivera, from age 18 in 1891 through World War I. As a volunteer, Hennie teaches English at a settlement hous e where she meets Daniel Roth. Their relationship is frowned upon by her family, but they marry when she becomes pregnant. Her uncertainty over whether Dan woul d have married her otherwise is aggravated by his roving eye. The grown-up Paul, Hennie's son Fred, and Leah, an orphan she raises, are also featured. Character izations are often superficial but sparked by an occasional insight into motivat ions, hinting of skills better realized in earlier novels. Interest in the famil y carries the reader forward and will certainly prompt demand. Literary Guild an d Doubleday Book Club dual main selections. Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib., Des Moines Set in turn-of-the-century New York, Plain's latest is a stirr ing novel that focuses on irrepressible Hennie De Riveraaunt of Evergreen's Paul Wernerand her family. Hennie's stagnant existence ends when she begins dating D an Roth, an impoverished science teacher and social reformer who despises the ma terialistic excesses of the rich. She weds Dan despite her middle-class family's objections and her knowledge of his earlier womanizing. The marriage is tested when Dan's activism alienates Hennie's wealthy brother-in-law, Walter Werner, wh ose father owns tenements, and when Hennie agrees to raise Leah, daughter of a d ying factory worker. The girl matures into a shrewd, forceful woman who gravitat es toward the Roths' exceptionally mild-mannered son, Freddy. While their relati.…