TIME TO STAND AND STARE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 13

TIME TO STAND AND STARE

STRANGER IN ITALY, by Herbert Kubly; | Victor Gollancz, English price 18/-. MERICAN Fulbright professors ies the pursuit of their missions fortunately have time to stand and stare as well as to rush about. Many, as we know, write books about the country visited. ‘The author of this one was, I infer, a professor of literature in the University of Wisconsin. He visited Italy in 1950-51, and he completed this book in November, 1954-dates that are important in relation to his observations of conditions in the country. Mr. Kubly is recognised as a competent art critic and a skilful journalist; but apart from these professional qualifications he has some personal qualities which have contributed to the making of a most entertaining and instructive book. He combines a warm sympathy with impersonal objectivity; he is disarmingly friendly, sophisticated but without guile, yet not easily bluffed or deceived. This book is not the usual travel story. You go with Kubly to various cities-Rome, Milan, Florence, Capri, Naples, Venice, and other places; you live with him and the friends he makes; you visit cathedrals and art galleries, and also poor streets and slums. All the time you are meeting people-the worthy and the not so worthy, the privileged and the not so privileged. Through what you see and hear you come to understand what makes Italians hate Americans, but want to live im America; what makes the common people look to Communism as their hope in the battle against poverty and the landlords. Mr. Kubly’s fine sense of humour pervades the book; his wit does not spare his women.

L.J.

W.