[boards very slightly bowed outwards, tiny shallow dent in top of front cover; jacket has one tiny chip at top of front panel, very slight paper loss at top of spine, light soiling to rear panel]. The Alabama-born author's second (and apparently last) book, "essentially a novel about Johnny Somers, a frightened young man who suddenly finds himself in a strange world of baffling mazes and tortuous paths; and yet, even more starkly real, it is the heart-breaking story of the pitiable, likable people of a small Southern town." If that jacket-blurb quote seems a little oblique, it didn't prevent the New York Times reviewer from sussing out the real subject of the novel: "Sex is the catalyst in this story of a small Southern town, its small Southern inhabitants, and the small young man who comes to teach history to its high school students. It is by way of sex that the contributing characters are presented and fathomed, that wrongs are righted, revenges taken, and maturity attained, and that the central drama develops. The total effect is roughly that of a detective story of sex -- pace fast, dialogue thin-lipped, and plenty of suspects." Gibbons had received the publisher's "Fellowship in Fiction" award in 1942; his first novel, "Bright is the Morning," was published the following year. After this one appeared, he seems to have faded off the literary scene.
Title: The Patchwork Time
Edition: First Edition
Illustrator: Illustrated by (dj design) George Salter
Location Published: New York, Alfred A. Knopf: 1948
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj
Categories: Fiction: Vintage
Seller ID: 23171
Keywords: the south small towns high school teachers sexuality