cover image After the Garden

After the Garden

Doris Jean Austin. Plume Books, $11 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-452-26079-5

Austin's fiction debut, a vivid evocation of the trials and tribulations of a black family in the 1940s and '50s, ``has many virtues,'' commented PW. ``Unfortunately, although all the characters . . . are strong and appealing, the story line is too heavy for them to carry gracefully.'' (July)