FRIGHTENED PEOPLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 926, 10 May 1957, Page 13

FRIGHTENED PEOPLE

THE NINTH WAVE, by Eugene Burdick; Victor Gollancz, price 15/-. TWILIGHT THE GODS, by Ernest Gann; and re ton, English price 15/-. THE PLAIN, by Esther Salaman; the Hogarth Press, — English price 15/-. DESTINABERLIN, by Paul Vialar; Staples, English price 15/HERE have not been many novels. published in the last few vears which can match The Ninth Wave for brilliance of construction, The symbolic significance of the very title persists through this book; yet the whole impression is of blazing realism, almost a terrible honesty. The _ tone smatches the _ maste: theme of the hero’s life:

that all human beings are afraid of something. This is the principle which the leading character, Mike Freesmith, uses to get his way-in college, in war (where it is mistaken for something noble), and as a lawyer who specialises in political "fixing" of the peculiarly American kind-but which destroys him in the end. It is not pleasant reading, but acmiration for a sincere and masterly work comes with reflection. Ernest Gann’s book is just as competent in its own way, the way of Hemingway, the way of a good story told in good clean punches. What a pity that Gann had to intrude that over-worked American character, the overtly immoral woman with an incorruptible core. Good box-office movie stuff, but not true to life Otherwise, this story about the last days of an American sailing ship, and the assorted reactions of its crew and passengers to impending catastrophe, is pleasant and convincing. The Fertile Plain is a rambling novel of reminiscences, strung together without a clearly discernible thread except the passage of time, which is between the two Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1918. In this time a Jewish girl grows up in the Ukraine, and the general effect is one of placid progress, which does not seem to be the impression intended. although it is a pleasant enough book. Destination Berlin was first published in France under the title Cing Hommes de ce Monde. The names of these men (continued on next pase)

BOOKS (continued from previous page) of the world are John Warrior, Fritz Krieger, Francois Guerrier, William Fighter and Ivan Voin. One wonders which suffered the most in the translation, the translation or the translator. M. Vialar evidently meant well, but has set himself a task beyond his

powers.

Edmond

Malone