"The Build-Up," Volume 3 of the Stecher Trilogy, picks up the thread of "White Mule" and "In the Money." Although all of the novels deal with the triumphant rise of immigrant family in the early 1900's, "The Build-Up" is more concerned with the overwhelming drive and ambition of Joe Stretcher's wife, Gurlie. "Like James Joyce, Dr. Williams has his characters talk with such a native freshness that the sound is never obtrusive. It is a pure speech because it is so richly characteristic, and its utter realism is therefore deeper, more meaningful than the violent accuracy of naturalism." -Alfred Kazin, The New York Times.

(Key Words: Fiction, William Carlos William, Modern Fiction, Stecher Trilogy).