In ["In My Father's House"] Ernest Gaines returns to the fictional terrain he carved for himself in "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "Of Love and Dust."… The characters too are familiar; they are the staunch rural types, like Catharine Carmier and Jane Pitman, who meet life's adversities with stoic heroism and whom Mr. Gaines has portrayed with such authenticity in his previous works. All are familiar—all, that is, except Robert X, who emerges in this tale as a Giacomettilike figure amid a landscape peopled by stalwart, Old South provincials.

In this sense, "In My Father's House" is a striking departure for Mr. Gaines, for during the first half of this novel the mysterious Robert X controls the tempo of the narrative. It is his presence, eerie and initially inexplicable, that dominates the story, and ultimately, precipitates the action. Mr. Gaines has unleashed an alien force...