Books: G. B. S. & E. T.

• Share

(4 of 5)

THESE THIRTEEN—William Faulkner— Cape & Smith ($2.50).* Sensation of the year in U. S. fiction has certainly been Author William Faulkner. His nightmare novel Sanctuary (TIME, Feb. 16) sent many a critical wig flying on the green, many a reader hurrying to get Faulkner's earlier books (Soldier's Pay, Mosquitoes, Sartoris, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying). Of these 13 short stories (his first collection) some are new; none will much help or hurt his still controversial reputation. Some of the plots:

A reckless Southerner turned British airman fights a picayune guerilla warfare with his superior officer for the favors of a cocotte. He comes out ahead, then a Taube gets him.

A wandering file of soldiers plunge through a shallow crater, find themselves in a chalk cavern surrounded by Senegalese skeletons, long dead by gas.

The tough cook of a freighter goes nearly crazy when his pearly-eyed protege gives him the slip in Naples and succeeds in losing his innocence.

Faulkner's severest critics have never denied his ability to write; his blindest praisers have never asserted his optimism. This is the way he writes about writing: "And so, being momentary, it can be preserved and prolonged only on paper; a picture, a few written words that any match, a minute and harmless flame that any child can engender, can obliterate in an instant. A one-inch sliver of sulphur-tipped wood is longer than memory or grief: a flame no larger than a sixpence is fiercer than courage or despair."

Werewolf

THE WOLF IN THE GARDEN—Alfred H. Bill—Longmans ($2).* The little Hudson River town of "New Dortrecht," in the year 1792, was a peaceful & pleasant community until the arrival of the French emigre M. de Saint Loup, with his great wolfhound De Retz. Then in rapid succession came six terrible killings, tales of a giant timber wolf no dog would face. Young Robert Farrier disliked the Frenchman from the first, hated him when he turned out to be a rival for Felicity's fair hand. Felicity preferred Robert but her uncle was in trouble with the banks; Saint Loup's timely money bought her. Hate sharpened Robert's wits, but he was too much the child of 18th Century enlightenment to put two & two together till the shrewd old Rector, whose hobby was lycanthropy, added them for him. In time's nick they settled the werewolf's fate.

Author Bill has enjoyed writing for years, but kept his amateur standing longer than he liked. Never a denizen of Grub Street, he now enjoys his professionalism even more. The Wolf in the Garden, a frank thriller, is written with greater care, more distinction than writers on such subjects usually have at their disposal. Other books: Alas, Poor Yorick!, The Red Prior's Legacy.

Gold-Digger's Progress

RED-HEADED WOMAN—Katharine Brush —Farrar & Rinehart ($2).†

When Gulliver on his travels encountered the Yahoos, he thought the red-headed females the worst of the lot. Gulliver's Travels, most savage of satires, could never have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. A few years ago, neither could Red-Headed Woman. But Authoress Brush's Yahoo has little in common with the Swift Yahoos except a coldly salacious temperament which Authoress Brush does not dwell on.