Books: Catastrophe in Their Bones

THE FOX IN THE ATTIC (352 pp.)—Richard Hughes—Harper ($4.50).

When the generals, journalists and politicians have had their say, the last word on war and the portents of war belongs to the poets, playwrights and novelists.

For those much under 60, World War I is the creation of Graves and Hemingway, Remarque and Dos Passes, R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End and Maxwell Anderson's What Price Glory? World War II, though less well served, has had its Mailer and James Jones in the U.S., Monsarrat and Waugh in Europe. But where is the panoptic work which...