Too snoof. BOOKS IN BRIEF

Too snoof.

La Guardia, by Arthur Mann (Lippincott, $6.00). A cynical New York politician once wisecracked that the ideal candidate in his city would be a “war-wounded Negro nun.” Pending the advent of such a paragon, millions of New Yorkers turned to Fiorello La Guardia— half Italian, half Jewish, Episcopalian and a Mason. This highly readable and meticulously annotated biography of the Little Flower (the first of two projected volumes) traces his tempestuous life down to 1933, just prior to his first election as Mayor. To the author’s credit, he makes no attempt to hide his subject’s glaring defects—the raging power-drive, the wild inconsistencies, the unscrupulousness, the rough stuff. But in subtitling this volume “A Fighter Against His Times,” Mr. Mann does La Guardia somewhat more than justice. He was not—a politician seldom is—a fighter against his times. On the contrary, La Guardia from the start rode the crest of his times—the flood of South and East European immigration that ultimately broke the Irish hegemony in New York City. But it was quite a ride, and it makes a colorful story; and in the end, as Jim Fisk once bragged of a business deal, nothing was lost save honor. w. a. rusher

JM

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J. P. McFadden

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Too snoof.

La Guardia, by Arthur Mann (Lippincott, $6.00). A cynical New York politician once wisecracked that the ideal candidate in his city would be a “war-wounded Negro nun.” Pending the advent of such a paragon, millions of New Yorkers turned to Fiorello La Guardia— half Italian, half Jewish, Episcopalian and a Mason. This highly readable and meticulously annotated biography of the Little Flower (the first of two projected volumes) traces his tempestuous life down to 1933, just prior to his first election as Mayor. To the author’s credit, he makes no attempt to hide his subject’s glaring defects—the raging power-drive, the wild inconsistencies, the unscrupulousness, the rough stuff. But in subtitling this volume “A Fighter Against His Times,” Mr. Mann does La Guardia somewhat more than justice. He was not—a politician seldom is—a fighter against his times. On the contrary, La Guardia from the start rode the crest of his times—the flood of South and East European immigration that ultimately broke the Irish hegemony in New York City. But it was quite a ride, and it makes a colorful story; and in the end, as Jim Fisk once bragged of a business deal, nothing was lost save honor. w. a. rusher