Set in Newfoundland like last year's Hold Fast, this weaker novel [Far From Shore] also deals with a basically likable but undisciplined kid in trouble. In a family where his unemployed father has become a surly drunk and his high-achieving sister, bound for University, is forever "at" her Dad—till he hauls off and hits her one on a disastrous Christmas—Chris flunks ninth grade, starts hanging out with a no-good older crowd, and gets in trouble with police over an episode of gang vandalism he's too drunk to remember…. By the end of the story Dad has returned, Chris (who had considered dropping out) is back in school, and the family is back together, thanks partly to the intercession of the camp head who is also their local minister. This is told mostly from Chris' viewpoint but Major also switches among the other principals' thoughts—most of...