All Fall Down

ALL FALL DOWN

The Williams are a strange family. Ralph is a Socialist who goes into real estate because his wife Annabel assures him a good liberal could also be a shrewd businessman.

Their sons: Clinton who spends his time filling notebooks with people's conversation, and Berry-berry, a psychopath who travels around the country, in and out of scrapes and jail.

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Clinton searches for his brother from a bordello on the west coast of Florida eventually to Berry-berry's return home to Cleveland.

Much drama ensues, and somehow out of a dismal mess, Clinton manages to salvage something of himself and the book ends upbeat note.

Herlihy's characters are very close to Flannery O'Connor creations. There's something terribly wrong with them, but their essential problems are the same as everyone else's. The horror of their dilemmas permits the reader not to take them too seriously.