Parris Mitchell is definitely the proponent of the story- and not Kings Row itself- as in the book to which this is, after eight years- the sequel. Parris has achieved his goal as a psychiatrist (still a young professional in the midwest of the first world war) in his hometown hospital- but he is still somewhat in need of his own medicine, as he tries to rationalize his marriage with Elise, emotionally a child-wife. Kings Row seems still to have a predominant percentage of abnormal personalities, but there are a few to offset them. There's melodrama here, perversion too, violence in a near-lynching and rape with its tragic aftermath. There are the back-biting and bitter jealousies of small-town life, which lead to Parris' loss of his job until the flu epidemic gives him a chance of a comeback. In plot structure, in character, and mass of incident, there is a similarity of appeal -- but the style, the dialogue, and the literary values of this book indicate the loss of Bellaman's own facility of technical skill, and bear the mark of amateur handling of a book posthumously completed from notes, memory, and a few finished sections.