NEW FICTION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28802, 24 January 1959, Page 3

NEW FICTION

Soldiers and No General. By Hans Dormann. lan Novak. 175 pp. This might be the story of any army in retreat. The fact that it concerns the doomed Germans trying hopelessly to extricate themselves from a wide encirclement by the Russians in 1944 makes the description of human suffering none the less poignant. A small detachment of dispatch.-, runners in a German battalion are the characters in this human drama, and each man is etched with the sure touch of a personal knowledge. The officers know that the army is doomed, but order reconnaissances and coun-ter-attacks, which are quite fruitless and cause casualties. One by one the men meet death or dreadful wounds in their hopeless attempts to break out \of the enclosing net. Only one is taken by the Russians and sent to imprisonment in Siberia. The author who must have drawn on autobiography for much of his material was a prisoner of war for five years, and when released returned to Western Germany and became a journalist Stranger In Galah. By Michael Barrett. Longmans; Green. 223 PP. Life in the unwatered wastes of Australia’s Northern Territory, and the white man’s relation with the black, have attracted some attention from writers in recent years, and this stark tale of drought in a dying township, and the havoc it plays with the minds and passion of men, will rank high in the list of books on the subject. When John Deane drove his battered truck into Galah, and deposited the dead body of an Aborigene at. the police station he was headed for trouble and he knew it. The man had been hanged, and Deane had seen and spoken to his murderer. All this he explained to Edwin Lawrence, the policeman, only to meet with evasive and sullen comment. The whole town knows that the powerful station-owner, Richard Malone, upon whose goodwill they are dependant for water, and indeed, their very existence, had killed the man, and though they are troubled in conscience they resent the stranger—a “pommie” at that—who thrusts upon them the inconvenient obligation of bringing the offender to justice. Deane is a lonely nomad, who has been wrongly accused of theft, and is on the run from the Sydney police and his own low appraisal of himself, but he declines to leave the town, in the face of every discouragement resolves to carry out his purpose of pinning the murder on Malone. With every man’s hand against him he fights his lone battle, being beaten up by Malone’s men and coming near to death in a conflict with Malone himself. The story is told with a fine economy of phrase and sense of character. The pitilessness of relentless drought under burning skies is well portrayed. Something About a Soldier. By Mark Harris. Andre Deutsch. 191 pp. This novel deals with the now familiar theme of a man unable to conform to Army life, but in an unusual way. Private Jacob €pp, whose name was distorted from Epstein at the beginning of his career in the. American Army, is a very young -soldier whose naive earnestness serves as armour against the abrasions of the Army machine. Inevitably, he is a butt for his fellows, but finds a protector in a captain who comes to share with Epp love for the same girl. The story is amusingly told, though there is an underlying pathos. There is one riotously funny scene involving the stock character of a tough sergeant But on the whole the story is a story . of character, rather than a story of Army life.

Escape From Hell. By Walter Wallace. Robert Hale. 175 PP. This book is a record of endurance and miraculous escapes from death. The author, an Australian sergeant of the regular army, was taken prisoner by the Japanese when Singapore fell, and was sent to Sandakan in British North Borneo, where the prisoners were put to work constructing an airfield. Most of them fell victims to malaria and other ills, and were grossly ill-treated and systematically overworked. With the aid of a friendly Chinese who lived in the adjacent jungle, Wallace and two others succeeded in making their escape, well knowing that recapture would mean instant execution. Their idea was to hire a “kompit,” or native fishing boat, and make for the nearest of the Philippine islands,-to join up there if possible with American forces. Wallace’s two companions unfortunately elected to leave him in an effort to speed up their escape, and were captured and shot, but the author managed to evade his pursuers after lying low in the jungle for some time, and v with four other Australians who had succeeded in getting away arrived eventually at Tawi Tawi, where a guerrilla force of pro-American Philipinos were assembled. Here the author improvised a signalling station and was able to report Japanese fleet movements to American submarines with good effect. He was now in the proud position of serving in both the American and Australian armies, but danger still threatened, for the Japanese were wont to send raiding parties to the numerous islands of that group, and the guerrillas, among whom were a number of fifth columnists, were unreliable, and would disappear into the jungle at the first sight of the enemy. Wallace and his friends evaded capture by the smallest margin, and some of them inevitably fell victims to the raiders. By “kompit,” the Australians dodged from island to island when invasion threatened. Finally, an American submarine transported the author to Darwin, and he was able to tell his incredible story to the Australian Intelligence Department. Parton’s Island. By Paul Darcy Boles. Hodder and Stoughton. 220 pp. On the dust-jacket “Parton’s Island” is described with more than usual ineptitude as ‘‘a warm and warming novel, a boyhood idyll for readers of any age.” This Is true only if J. D. Salinger’s celebrated ‘‘Catcher in the Rye" could also be similarly described. In ‘‘Parton’s Island” two boys take possession of an island in a bend of the Alabama River. Nothing could be simpler; but using this theme the author has written a novel about the pursuit of happiness. Coming from a keenly perceptive writer, the tragedy and, to some extent, the beauty of “Parton’s Island” must make a strong appeal to adult readers. It is obvious that in planning his book Mr Boles has drawn upon the store of his memories, arid what he remembers is both vivid and deeply felt. Violent City. By John and Ward Hawkins. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 189 pp. There are action and tension in plenty in this story of crime in the American mid-wesL Ed. Morgan, a police officer, while attending the funeral' of his father, also a police officer, suddenly halts his car to chase a wanted criminal He takes over his father’s job and sets but on what Seems a hopeless quest in a boom town. When everything seems set against him, Morgan astonishes the town by refusing to take action against the man the evidence points to, but instead arrests one of his backers.

• Beyond The Mountains. By Alexander Ramati. Eyre and Spottlswoode. 226 pp. The scene of this novel is Uzbek1 istan, that little-known territory 1 on the south-east borders of the ! U-S.S.l}. The year is 1941. Two ’ Polish brothers, just released from ’ Siberia under a general amnesty 1 for Poles, have arrived at the 5 small town of Karmine, and afe ■ aiming to cross the mountains into' i Persia as the first step to regaih- [ ing their real freedom. Victor Sobol, the elder of the two, is a vigorous character, and makes all 1 the decisions, Marek, the younger, > being physically weak and morally ■ indecisive. An old Uzbek,. Ulug i Beg, whose younger son had • shared their captivity in Siberia, i agrees to help them to escape. J under the guidance of his other • son, Hamlat, but the plan mist carries when Victor is suddenly i smitten with typhus. At the same • time Marek is seized and inter- • rogated by the Soviet authorities, > but manages to keep his head and lis released. In an agony of ■ anxiety for his brother he turns : for help to the gentle Jew, Ibram > Shukunov, in whose house he is ’ lodging, and at great risk to himr self, Ibram secures the drugs I which alone can save Victor’s r life. In his host’s absence, Marek i seduces Ibram’s wife, and is over- » whelmed with remorse at his own • baseness. Finally the brothers I together with Ibram and his wife, t make another attempt to escape, • and the book ends on a note of » poetic justice. The characters are f well-drawn, and the horrors of a 1 typhus epidemic are graphically I described. The simple kindliness ;of a poverty-stricken Asiatic ! people is shown to be unaffected , by the harsh regimentation imi posed upon them by their Com- , munist rulers. ’ The Mill House. By Adrian Bell. [ Bodley Head. 167 pp. s This story of matrimonial tent sion caused by conflicting tastes ' could only too easily have j degenerated into a tangle of • triangles and other Euclidian • situations. To the author’s credit j he rejects this way out of a , difficult dilemma. Roland. Pace and Naomi Minden had married i for love, and were conscientiously if not very successfully trying to , run a small-holding in Suffolk. The Mill House, which, with twelve acres, had cost Roland , £3OO was, as might be expected, , a very primitive dwelling indeed; neither did the project pay its 1 way. Roger and Judy Cantley, ‘ who lived close by, carried on , the same hand-to-mouth existence, j though Roger’s ambition was to deal in real estate. Naomi, a townbred girl with great musical 1 talent, sustained her menial role 1 with outward cheerfulness but inner misgivings, and a chance ’ accident which confined her ’ mother to bed gave her an excuse ■ to return home for a time. From this point onwards Naomi’s and Roland’s mutual loyalty was severely tested. The book ends ' happily with a compromise solut tion, designed to prove that love, as they say, will find a way. Mr i Bell writes with lyrical tender- : ness of country matters, and the Mill House with its candles, leaks, chemical closet and all emerges almost as_ a desirable residence. 1 A Job With The Boys. By T. L G. Wigff. Dennis Dobson. 253 PP. i Rear-Admiral Binney, in retires ment, receives news of a legacy . that is contingent upon his enter-, f ing an appointment “suitable for ‘ a gentleman for a period of not • less than five years.” The clause i was drawn in Binney’s boyhood ’ by a relative mistrustful of his i juniors. Pending. legal decision on the status of a naval officer in : retirement, Binney loses no time i in qualifying as an employed per- ! son. The job he finds is in an i English preparatory school The • subsequent story is much better . than a trite situation promises.