NEW FICTION

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31233, 3 December 1966, Page 4

NEW FICTION

Too Far To Walk. By John Hersey. Hamish Hamilton. 246 pp.

I Repeating once more the i theme of such works as Herllihy’s “All Fall Down" and 'Salinger’s “Catcher In The Rye", John Hersey gives us ryet another all-American treatise on the rebellious ; youth of today, on the inability of the young generaItion to co-operate or contribute. It’s all there—the secret shoddy sex. the cruel exi perimental parent-baiting, the .thieving just for kicks, and I finally the drug-taking. John i Fist is the young man who works up ,to all this, begini ning as an industrious secondiyear undergraduate at his I father’s old college. Shel;don, and being brought, by the influence of an evil companion, Breed, to a state of utter apathy, and 10 the ultimate depravity of the hallucinatory drug LSD. (Are we really meant to believe that the persuasive Breed is a Devil’s Helper?) Much of the book is taken up by Fist’s fantasy-dreams while under the control of this whirling dervish of a drug, stories within a story. However these contribute little to the flow of the book and seem needlessly obscene. A typographical gimmick which is most confusing, is the absence of inverted commas in the conversation. All dialogue is merely preceded by a dash. The title (unlike so many these days), does have i a bearing on the plot, and is I Fist’s thought as he contemplates stepping off the straight' and narrow. There’s a lec-l ture he should be attending, i but it is “too far to walk.” I Hersey’s earlier books in-1 elude the well-known “A Bel): For Adano.”

Valentina. By Evelyn Anthony. Hurst aiid Blackett. 207 pp.

This somewhat turgid, but skilfully written historical romance is set in the period of Napoleon’s Russian campaign. The heroine, Valentina, is the lovely young wife of a brutal Polish nobleman, Count Grunowski, who, when the French Army arrives in Danzig preparatory to invading Russia, is calmly prepared to offer his wife to the cause of Poland’s independence by using her as a spy on the French high command. This is to be accomplished by throwing her in the way of Marshal Murat—a notorious womaniser; but the plot miscarries, as the French have been warned of it in advance. Valentina, innocent pawn in this remorseless game of politics, finds herself in the hands of Colonel de Chavel, head of the French Secret Police, instead of the embrace of the Marshal, and persuades him. in an agonised plea for her safety, to deliver her to her half-sister, a ferocious amazon, Princess Alexandra Suvarov, at the latter’s castle at Czartatz. Having safely brought Valentina to her destination de Chavel places both women under French protection in case Grunowski attempts to abduct his wife. Alexandra is quite competent to protect her sister, but the latter’s heart is wholly given to de Chavel, and when the French armies meet with disaster Valentina insists upon going herself into Russia to look for him. Needless to say such a selfless love is finally rewarded but not before a welter of bloodshed and in-

credible hardships have been faced and surmounted. The author has done much research into the famous retreat and the glimpses of historical happenings make her story of more than mere romantic interest.

Hook. Line and Sinker. By Kate Nicholson. Geoffrey Bles. 224 pp.

This is the first novel by two anonymous writers using the pen-name of Kate Nicholson. It is to be hoped that many more of similar quality will ’ come from this most happy collaboration. The village of Beauchamp St. Mary is, in the main, populated by a Montague and Capulet set of families, the Nightingales and the Cleats, whose antagonisms provide humour as well as atmospheric background to the main story, and provide much raw material — some of it very raw—for Jenny Ramsey, a young anthropologist, who is spending the summer vacation as a guest of the Chilperic family. The Chilperics have a lot of young children, madly devoted to animals, and two

older boys and a girl of the i same age as Jenny. They are all so well portrayed that they I cannot help but charm a reader, and their future doings and plans will remain with him long after he has finished the book. Living in the manor house is Hester Harkaway-Jones, a wealthy and vicious woman whose spiteful remarks and actions invite, and in full measure eventually receive, retribution. Even as a corpse she creates trouble and problems because Inspector Merlin has to come to find out who murdered her. He is just the man to come to such a village, for he is a firm and inspired trainer of dogs, immediately captures the affections of the children, and has a rare mastery as an angler Practically everyone in the village has a motive and most of them have had an opportunity for ridding the village of Miss Harkaway-Jones. The solution has two barrels, rather like some of Agatha Christie's best endings. Buy this book, but do not lend it, for you will want to read it again.