Cousins — Judy L. Vernon

This episodic first novel centers around an area in Mississippi where a plantation named Alibamo supposedly once stood. It consists of nearly unrelated short stories about various historical, semimythical, and fantastic personages who inhabited, invaded, left, or died in Mississippi. The tone is hopeless and defeated. A consistent theme throughout the six episodes is the purity and honesty of the Indians and the cruelty and debauchery of the whites. There is no plot and little depth, and the novel overall is hard to comprehend. Regional interest only. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.