Janey Jeems: A Novel

306 pp. "JANEY was fifteen when she married Jeems West, and her very definite ideas of what she wanted out of life included children and a happy home. The hardships of living in the Carolina hills, the threat to her happiness in the memory of Jeems's first unhappy marriage, and the proximity of the predatory Valentine, who deals in charms and witchery, only make her work harder to help Jeems scratch a living from the soil and to rear her children to fear the Lord and shun evil. By the time Janev reaches old age things have turned out pretty much as she had wished. Most of their children are a credit to her and Jeems, and even when he dies she can find some pleasure in waiting quietly with faith that her own end will reunite them. The climax of JANEY JEEMS comes at its end with a surprising revelation which emphasizes the deep humanity with which it is written. Bernice Kelly Harris's handling of this delightful story will come as a new experience to readers who do not expect happiness to he wrung from poverty, or advantages to be gained by those numbered among the underprivileged."