All My Trials (C)

The narrator of the two novels collected here is retired Judge Albert Johnston Finch of Caddo Parish, La. In Decoration Day, he is asked to intercede on behalf of an old, neglected friend, the reclusive ""mean old negro'' who has refused the government's belated offer of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his services in World War II. The man's story confronts the judge with his own role in injustice. But before an appropriate resolution, the powerful, riveting narration is unfortunately broken off, and all that follows will disappoint. In The Risti's Wife, the judge is the passive listener as his colleagues recount a woman's marriage to a man who returns from his wartime sojourn in India as a practitioner of Eastern spiritual disciplines. The choice of narrative device here seems lazy and serves mainly to keep the story at a distance. (May)