Title: Home Port
First published: 1947
Description: This is the story of a young man who becomes a fugitive from his own identity, and incidentally escapes from a deep-seated inferiority complex. Throughout the novel the reader's attention is constantly turning from Murray Vale's psychological problems and his gradual escape from his false fears, to the events of his life as a fugitive and its unpredictable solution. Plot and problem play equally important roles.

As a child, Murray, shy, sensitive, but talented in his own line, becomes the victim of a brother complex, due to the fact that from childhood he had lived in the reflected glory of a brilliant older brother. Murray is convinced that he possesses none of the requisites for popularity and success, and as he grows older he is haunted by the fear that he lacks courage also.

Two years after he has completed his drab and uneventful career at college a tragic catastrophe occurs, and he assumes another identity and name, escaping from the stifling effect of his conventional Boston environment and comparison with his brother. In his new setting he gradually acquires self-confidence and poise. It would be anticipating the events of the story to tell of his meeting with Nora Brock—a fearless, independent, unconventional girl, unlike any he had ever known before. It is due to an incident in the war that his identity becomes known and his personality finally returns, victorious, to its home port.

To those who are familiar with Mrs. Prouty's recent novels Murray Vale is not altogether an unknown name. The parts he played in the previous novels, however, have been as insignificant and inglorious as his early estimate of himself, but in this novel he comes into his own as the chief actor.
Subjects: Brothers, Fiction, Sibling rivalry, Inferiority complex
LC classification: PZ3.P948 Ho, PS3531.R863 Ho