NEW FICTION

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 4

NEW FICTION

Tse Pillow Fight By Nichelas Monsarrat Caaaell. 348 pp. This is the story of a man and woman who begin their marriage with strongly-held, utterly opposed beliefs and find that time and circumstance reverse their attitudes so completely that each finally reflects the other’s earlier conviction, thus perpetuating a state of unremitting conflict. Kate Marais is a young. Afrikaaner South African, advertising executive de-1 voted to the preservation! of a life of luxury that she has enjoyed since childhood. Jonathon Steele is poor. English and a writer who, like so many before him. has come to South Africa to ■; expose that country’s social sores. The couple marry and Jonathon's book is a great i success bringing fame and financial reward. The scene | shifts to New York where Jonathon succumbs to a life of luxury, and in the eyes of his wife and publishers prostitutes his genius by turning the book into a Broadway musical. Kate's latent social conscience on the other hand, stirred by the book, grows, and finally her attitudes have swung full pendulum and the marriage is on the rocks, ai situation that is aided by' Jonathon’s aquisition of a mistress in yet another glamorous locale, the West Indies : The happy ending, although demanded by the formula Mr Monsarrat seems to have adopted. and therefore •• expected, comes as a distinct; anti-climax after pages of [ internecine warfare, torrid passages of what can only be called clinical sex. and too clever conversation. Death the Red Flower. By Oswald Wynd. Cassell, I 216 pp. John Loumie, master of thei Maree Tarn, was annoyed j when his ship was delayed in’ Shanghai by the incompetence of a river pilot, per turbed and puzzled when his: chief engineer was arrested I on a charge of murder, and! seriously worried when he [ found that his ship was being: tracked by a submarine on the journey back to Gourock on the Clyde. To make I matters worse, he had passengers on board, a young actress[ and her elder companion and! a man recently released from[ a Chinese gaol who appeared!; to be half-insane. His cares I were trifling, however, corn pared with those of the I ■ western political leaders who found themselves engaged in a new conflict with Russia and China over Quemoy and Berlin. with the imminent prospect of nuclear war. But was the new Chinese leader. Lui Fa Tsu, really supporting his! Russian allies or was he! working a colossal double-' cross to ruin friend and foe together? In this well-i constructed thriller Mr Wynd! provides plenty of action by credible characters. and follows the new trend to regard China, not Russia, as! the likely villain of a nuclear! war. The Little Men. By Luis Harss. Heinemann. 369. i PPSet in Buenos Aires, this: novel is dominated by the de-1 generate and pathetic figure l of Don Feliciano. A landowner and aristocrat Don. Feliciano begins his career promisingly. He has personal wealth, looks, education, andj is filled with a youthful; idealism. Very soon, how-; ever, his hopes give way to; disillusionment. The humani-'i tarian land schemes on which::

he had staked so much in terms of personal fulfilment, collapse: he is troubled with financial problems, and frustrated in his personal relationships. Gradually he sinks into lethargy, preferring to anchor himself to respectability and comfort rather than to preserve his freedom “to live, to adapt, to grow.” Don Feliciano's decline and defeat are observed by his four children—“the little men’’— who [ have rejected the idealism, , the sense of country and ■ family and inheritance which * were the touchstones of his own generation. There is Lucio, the eldest son and the profligate of the family; . Agraciada the daughter, who seems determined to become a martyr to suffering: the stepbrother Claudio who has become entangled in religious extremism: and Ignazio, the narrator, who is under- * going his own ordeal by fire with the beautiful but erratic Clemencia. Each of them is trying to extract some meaning from life.. but it is only with their father's death that they feel sufficiently liberated from the inherited props of their class to set about rediscovering the world for themselves. and learning to live in. jit as individuals. The novel ! is impressive for the vitality ’ of its characterisation and for the insight with which the author explores the complex- ! ities of human behaviour. though he perhaps expects too much of his characters. Certain scenes stand out with : memorable clarity: but the: ■ narrative as a whole is slow- [ moving and discursive, and at times becomes monotonous. Eight Weeks. By Clyde Chandler. Linden Press. 225 pp. Founded on historical fact | this novel tells the story of a 19th century minor poetess! *and novelist—Letitia Eliza- : beth Landon—and her surprisI ing marriage and mysterious death. “L.E.L.,” a romanticist whose poetry was in the Byronic vein of melancholy, I had outlived her popularity j by the middle 1830’s while her unconventional behaviour. : and hopeless passion for: : Edward Bulwer Lytton.; earned her an undeserved re-! jputation for wantonness. In 1838, when she was 36 she! met George Maclean—Gover- 1 i nor of the Gold Coast—and | after a whirlwind courtship * married him. and went out ! I to what is now Ghana, where Maclean lived in a gloomy, . fort called Cape Coast Castle, i The only white woman in a male community, and sub-: jeeted to a notoriousjy bad; climate, “L.E.L.” survived for I only eight week? before dying! of what was believed to be [ : poisoning by prussic acid. These are the known facts. /Clyde Chandler, who has j spent 18 years on the Gdid Coast, puts her own interpretation on them. George :Maclean's record as administrator of the trading post was one of integrity and fair dealing. He brought the “Pax I Britannica” to a country rent j by tribal warfare and was * trusted by the chiefs. Even bouts of malaria would not deter him from carrying out his duties, and he devoted little time or thought to his -wife. Still yearning after I Lytton, she craved for her husband’s affection and confidence in vain, and was thrown .more and more into the company of Brodie Cruikshank. one of Maclean’s subordinates. : who fell in love with her. This fact was not lost on Kefi. Maclean's devoted servant. jWho hated and resented his master's wife. The brief awakening of mutual love be-

tween husband and wife is a matter of conjecture, but Kofi who had reported to Maclean a comprising scene between “L.E.L.” and Cruikshank, is assumed to have been responsible for her death, though she kept a medicine containing prussic acid always by her to deal with sudden heart attacks. The most interesting part of the book is that which describes conditions at Cape Coast Castle, and the British and African elements which composed the life of the country. Poor “L.E.L.’s” tragedy seems of less account than the near-nhn which it brought to her gifted and forceful husband. The Fifth Woman. By Maria Fagyas- Hodder and Stoughton. 233 pp. The Hungarian revolution of 1956 provides the background of this unusual type of thriller. It opens with the machine-gunning by a Russian tank of a bread-queue in Budapest as a result of which four j women are killed. Inspector Nemetz of the Criminal ( not the political) police while pas- , ing this scene of carnage spares a moment to look at ! the victims before going on to j his office. His first visitor is * an agitated woman, who begs him to arrest her husband, Dr. Halmy, who she declares is planning to kill her. Within a few hours of her departure he passes the bakery again, and sees that five corpses are laid out where there were! only four before and that Mrs Halmy is one of them. She proves to have been shot in [ the back. Apolitical by j nature, Nemetz pursues his personal search for her mur-i derer with Dr. Haliny as his chief suspect. The Doctor is! desperately busy dealing with casualties, but the fact that: he is in love with his secre- ! tary does not escape the! inspector's notice. The’; solution of the mystery is not ; wholly unexpected but the: study of the people who have staged a doomed revolt their! enemies and the opportunists | in their midst are described ( with the merciless accuracy of an author who knows them all at first hand. Tomorrow Will Be Better. By Nine Palumbo. Harvlll Press. 252 pp. It is the year 1934, and in a small town in Southern Italy Amitrano has his upholstery shop. He is a craftsman in a luxury trade and for years his shop has stood almost empty. Amitrano is not a member of the Fascist Party and is known to be critical and independent. At home there are his wife, her father and seven children. In des-! iperation, Amitrano moves to the near-by town of Bari. But I there a hoped-for new life !never began because there ! was little work for anyone. | let alone for artisans like Amitrano. What work there was. people scratched from one another. Dignity no longer existed. Eventually the family take the irrevocable step of going to a totally new life in the industrial north of Italy. The publishers contend that in spite of its realism, this book is not depressing because the characters keep their dignity, their will to survive and their deep-rooted belief that “tomorrow will be better." Probably, most readers will disagree, finding heartbreaking the sombre dayby-day struggle of people they have come to like thanks to the author’s fine characterisation and Isabel Quigly's magnificent translation.