ANN PETRY’S writing in this second novel shows much of the improvement one was led to anticipate on reading her first. Country Place is a fast-moving, somewhat melodramatic tale of a small New England town as seen through the eyes of its druggist, Mr. Fraser.

Johnny Roane, a veteran of the recent war, returns home after a four-year absence, to find his home town a bit strange and his beautiful young wife, Glory, more than a little estranged from him; yearning, in fact, after the affections of the town’s chief seducer. Glory’s mother, having artfully achieved marriage with the not very manly son of one of the town’s first families, broods over her failure to achieve status among the citizenry as well as over her complete frustration in attempting to become the recognized mistress of the Gramby estate, a post sternly and jealously presided over by her aged and ailing mother-in-law. Bits and pieces of unassembled gossip flit tentatively and covertly about the town, but The Weasel, a taxi-driver, is impatient with the normal speed of gossip and he frequently finds ways of helping it to take a jump or two ahead of schedule so that it will land in the places where it will do the most damage.

There is a hurricane, too, and the story is geared to its onset, climax, and departure. At the height of the storm, the smoldering hates, loves, and confusions of the main characters are whipped up into swift, decisive action; and in the wake of the big wind, the uncovered emotions of our main characters lead them into areas that might have, otherwise, taken years to reach.

Most of the characters are well done, but, curiously enough, Johnny Roane, the hero, is not; for he is not filled out to real-life, believable proportions. It is hard to believe, for instance, that a young man, just home from four years of war, would not relate a great deal of that most recent experience to the events in his new existence as a civilian, especially when slogging about on a rainy night in a muddy forest; and a fight with a soft, middleaged civilian — a cardiac patient at that — would have been a much more businesslike piece of action than Johnny displays.

Taken as a whole, though, Country Place is a good story, worthy of the telling. It preaches no sermons, waves no flags. It tells a plausible narrative of, for the most part, some very human people in an earthy situation. It need not have been told through the eyes and perceptions of the druggist, and it might even be that this technique detracts from its readability; for you may find yourself wondering, on occasion, where in the world even so wise a person as Mr. Fraser could have found out so much about the thoughts and behavior of his fellow citizens.

JOHN CASWELL SMITH, JR.