Miscellany

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 3

Miscellany

Polio Is Not For Pity. By Irene Holdsworth. George Allan and Unwin, Ltd.

When Isobel Huie was suddenly stricken with polio, her friend who visited her daily decided to keep a record of her life and progress in ward 23. Her chronicle takes the form of a letter to the patient herself, and as well as recounting the facts of the operations, daily exercises, and wonderfully contrived gadgets, she also expresses her agony of mind at watching her friend’s sufferings, her indignation at the thoughtlessness and occasional malice of some nurses, as well as her sincere admiration for doctors, patients, and those relatives who illustrated for her “the holiness of the heart’s affections” as they cheerfully and thankfully visited their own folk over a period of years. This excellently written book has come from the heart and contains no sickly sentimentality, but courage, compassion and love.

Men and Women. By Erskine Caldwell. Heinemann. 313 pp.

“Men and Women” is a selection of 22 of Erskine Caldwell’s best short stories. Mr Caldwell’s popularity as a novelist and writer of short stories no doubt owes much to the sensational nature of his material. Nevertheless he is a serious writer, and a fine craftsman, skilled in portraying complex psychological situations as they appear to the simple, inarticulate minds of his characters. Some of the most representative stories in this collection are “The Growing Season,” a powerful study in violence; “Indian Summer,” in which the dawning of adult passions in an adolescent boy and girl is conveyed with sympathetic understanding; and “Midsummer Passion,” which illustrates Mr Caldwell’s somewhat obsessive interest in sexual deviation. Also included are two famous stories of social protest: “Kneel to the Rising Sun” and “Candy Man Beechum.”