Martha Calhoun

Richard Babcock. Penguin Books, $7.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-14-011872-8

In the 1950s, in Katydid, Ill., a sexual impropriety committed while babysitting turns 16-year-old Martha's life upside down. ``Babcock, a fine writer with an unsparing eye for detail and an acute ear for speech patterns, makes both the simplicity and the narrowness of small-town life come alive with this humorous, rueful and thoughtful novel,'' praised PW . (May)

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