THREE BOOKS ABOUT WAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 339, 21 December 1945, Page 24

THREE BOOKS ABOUT WAR

UNWILLING GUESTS. By J. D. Gerard. A. H. and A. W. Reed, Wellington. CORINTH AND — THAT. By Fred Woollams. A. H. and. A. W. Reed, Wellington. THEY WILL By Martyn Uren, Collins, Auckland.

(Reviewed by

Frank

Sargeson

straightforward piece of reporting, and it is quite well done. It begins with the author’s being captured in Libya, and ends with his escaping from a P.O.W. camp in the north of Italy, and eventually crossing over to the British lines quite a long way south. Mr. Gerard is concerned mostly to report only what happened on the surface, but, even apart from a few open hints, his literary skill is such that the reader is continually aware that a great deal more is going on underneath. His literary skill is, indeed, outstanding. He seldom comes across with a cliché, and seldom fails to find the right word. His persistent waggishness may perhaps at times be somewhat over-persistent, but his ironic approach to his situation seems to me a ie first of these books is a

exactly right. And his occasional tributes to the enemy are fine and generous. (Such as the occasion when prisoners were transferred to another camp; they had to leave behind an. accumulation of food supplied through the Red Cross; but the Italian commandant: undertook to send it on; and he did; and it arrived.) * %* * R. WOOLLAMS very obviously feels that he has a tremendous tale to tell, and so he has-he was left behind in Greece and took to the hills, evading capture for 18 months or so; and the ship he was transferred to Italy on was torpedoed. Telling your tale in the pages of a book, however, is no easy matter; and when it is as terrible as it is tremendous, the difficulties are increased. I am sorry to say so, but I wish Mr. Woollams had been more successful; the initiative that distinguished him as a soldier apparently deserted him almost completely when he turned to authorship; hence his many borrowed forms of expression-and he has to borrow even to say that he is unable

to express himself: "My heart was heavy and my innermost feelings could never be committed to paper.’ Nevertheless, there are times when his language, instead of being an obstruction, really does bring us into touch with himsuch as when he says simply and directly that he was a six-foot skeleton covered with parched skin. And in any case I feel rather at a disadvantage in saying anything about the book at all. Mr. Woollams says: "I pray that in the years to come it will never be possible for anyone who has not been to war to pass judgment in any way whatsoever on the actions and affairs of a returned soldier." a * * | FIND it quite impossible to say anything good of Mr. Uren’s novel; and as it would be quite wrong to say anything bad without giving adequate reasons (which lack of space makes im-possible)-well, I prefer to say nothing at all. The story is about a New Zealand soldier who gets left behind in Greece, and the Greek girl he gets in tow with. And will those who feel like objecting to my "in tow with," kindly refer to Page 56 where Mr. Uren writes of "Anthony and Cleopatra in their Mediterranean love-nest."