In this new novel, Erskine Caldwell returns to the kind of story which, in "Tobacco Road," has left its indelible impression on American letters.

"Tragic Ground" is set in a little Southern community, forlorn off-shoot of a war-boom town from which the boom has receded. Lingering on, without so much as the bus fare to take them back where they came from, is the family of Spence Douthit. Spence is no rebel; he longs to get back to Beasley County, to keep his thirteen-year-old daughter off the streets, to find, somehow, somewhere, a home where they can all be together, but these longings can now be quieted with pitiful ease. A crap game at Bill Tarrant's Private Club; a riotous and eye-opening night with the girls at The White Turkey-and Spence, the dollars evaporated, returns to the mild bewilderment of his helplessness to the spirited rows over the back fence with Chet Mitchell and the latest scheme for marrying the erring Mavis to a rich man.

Here is obstreperous, abundant humor, and here, too are anger and pity. It is Mr. Caldwell's gift and art to combine these elements in a novel which is rich both in humanity and entertainment.