The Patchwork Time

by Robert Gibbons

The Alabama-born author's second (and apparently last) book, "essentially a novel about Johnny Somers, a frightened young man who suddenly finds himself in a strange world of baffling mazes and tortuous paths; and yet, even more starkly real, it is the heart-breaking story of the pitiable, likable people of a small Southern town." If that jacket-blurb quote seems a little oblique, it didn't prevent the New York Times reviewer from sussing out the real subject of the novel: "Sex is the catalyst in this story of a small Southern town, its small Southern inhabitants, and the small young man who comes to teach history to its high school students. It is by way of sex that the contributing characters are presented and fathomed, that wrongs are righted, revenges taken, and maturity attained, and that the central drama develops. The total effect is roughly that of a detective story of sex -- pace fast, dialogue thin-lipped, and plenty of suspects."

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1948

About the author

Robert S. Gibbons is an American economist and Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT. He specializes in organizational economics and founded the NBER Working Group on Organizational Economics, which he directed from 2002 to 2022.