ROAD TO THE STILT HOUSE. Richards, David Adams. Ottawa, Oberon Press, c1985. 171pp, paper, ISBN 0-88750-574-0 (cloth) $27.95, 0-88750-575-9 (paper) $14.95. Grades 12 and up Reviewed by Bohdan Kinczyk Volume 13 Number 6 1985 November Trapped by ignorance, poverty, and inertia, the characters in Road to the Stilt House are a pretty depressing crew. Arnold's family drifts from unemployment insurance to welfare and finally to complete ruin, never wanting or trying to leave the backwater New Brunswick road that leads nowhere. Arnold's fuse gets shorter and shorter as he loses girlfriend, job, mother,brother, and self-respect. His chilling threats to "get even" keep the story moving; the next ugly confrontation is never far away. In Arnold, Richards gives us a convincing character most of the time. Sometimes, though, Arnold's diction, both in dialogue and interior monologue, is too formal and thus rings false. Ignorant, dull, and uneducated, Arnold lacks both the with and the energy to say "perhaps" and "yes" and "I must go." And he certainly would not use "for" as a conjunction. The stylistic lapses are irritating. Still, I find Arnold a haunting character, and I give Richards full marks for making him real. Bohdan Kinczyk, Central Elgin C.I., St. Thomas, Ont.