cover image Precious in His Sight

Precious in His Sight

Martha Ellen Hughes, M. Hughes. Viking Books, $17.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-670-82401-4

This wrongheaded first novel tries too hard to please and ends up haplessly chasing its own, oft-told tale. Yet another variation on a done-to-death Southern themethe dregs of a once aristocratic family, the Patouts, face off for what's left of the estatethis version comes up short virtually across the board. An unsteady, ever-shifting perspective lopes aimlessly from character to character, relinquishing any hope of narrative focus and leaving in its wake a messy trail of loose ends and unanswered questions. In lieu of plot, Hughes offers reams of irrelevant observations and detail in a misguided attempt to buoy her rudderless story with eccentricity and regional ``color''; this gratuitous and often clunky description, attendant to even the most tangential characters, constantly derails an already weak storyline. Cliched situations, cardboard characters and unbelievable dialogue ice the cake. (Nov.)