Books in Brief

Democracy Versus Communism, by Kenneth Colegrove (Van Nostrand, $4.95). What should the high school textbook say to the student about Communism? Should it be “objective”? —that is, should it treat the history of the Soviets as if it were, to any degree, what they would like us to believe it has been? Or should the student be told merely the truth? Mr. Cole- grove has chosen the latter, and he has done a comprehensive job. There is no glossing over the forty years of terror, no tempering the reality of Communist intentions for the future. Soviet advances in production are reported, but so is the terrible cost of such advances to the Russian people. And the entire fabric of Communist theory and “law” is clearly exposed as a fraud. If the corresponding parts of the text which deal with democracy are not so extensively handled, this can be readily defended. What we most need is a real understanding of our enemy: such understanding will surely encourage the serious student to learn more about his own position. But perhaps the most important thing about this book is not what is in it, but what will be done with it. Will our schools use a text so obviously “biased” in favor of truth? Perhaps we should check up on it. J. P. mcfadden

I Like It Here, by Kingsley Amis (Harcourt, $3.75). Now getting on to thirty-six, the elder statesman of Britain’s Angry Young Men may be said, at least from a Biblical calculation, to be half shot. His very tired third novel, Which is as inferior to his second one as that was to Lucky Jim, his brilliantly funny first one, suggests further vistas of decline. I Like It Here is about “beastly abroad”—in short, about one Garnet Bowen, hack writer, who goes to Portugal with his wife and three children to write articles. He is miserable there—and that more or less, if you except a clumsy side issue, is what the novel is about. Garnet Bowen is another of those superfluous men in a fog who people this province of British fiction. He illustrates more clearly than most that pretension of having no pretensions which is their prevailing ethical imperative. Alas, Amis’ humor is becoming cloacal, which is another sign of functional decrepitude. If you are looking for deeper springs you can, if you wish, take the title to indicate a commitment to the simplicities of ordinary English life and rejection of that which is foreign to it, however glamorous. This is a curious way to make such a point. They are likening Amis to Waugh and Huxley, which is curiouser and curiouser. e. case

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Democracy Versus Communism, by Kenneth Colegrove (Van Nostrand, $4.95). What should the high school textbook say to the student about Communism? Should it be “objective”? —that is, should it treat the history of the Soviets as if it were, to any degree, what they would like us to believe it has been? Or should the student be told merely the truth? Mr. Cole- grove has chosen the latter, and he has done a comprehensive job. There is no glossing over the forty years of terror, no tempering the reality of Communist intentions for the future. Soviet advances in production are reported, but so is the terrible cost of such advances to the Russian people. And the entire fabric of Communist theory and “law” is clearly exposed as a fraud. If the corresponding parts of the text which deal with democracy are not so extensively handled, this can be readily defended. What we most need is a real understanding of our enemy: such understanding will surely encourage the serious student to learn more about his own position. But perhaps the most important thing about this book is not what is in it, but what will be done with it. Will our schools use a text so obviously “biased” in favor of truth? Perhaps we should check up on it. J. P. mcfadden

I Like It Here, by Kingsley Amis (Harcourt, $3.75). Now getting on to thirty-six, the elder statesman of Britain’s Angry Young Men may be said, at least from a Biblical calculation, to be half shot. His very tired third novel, Which is as inferior to his second one as that was to Lucky Jim, his brilliantly funny first one, suggests further vistas of decline. I Like It Here is about “beastly abroad”—in short, about one Garnet Bowen, hack writer, who goes to Portugal with his wife and three children to write articles. He is miserable there—and that more or less, if you except a clumsy side issue, is what the novel is about. Garnet Bowen is another of those superfluous men in a fog who people this province of British fiction. He illustrates more clearly than most that pretension of having no pretensions which is their prevailing ethical imperative. Alas, Amis’ humor is becoming cloacal, which is another sign of functional decrepitude. If you are looking for deeper springs you can, if you wish, take the title to indicate a commitment to the simplicities of ordinary English life and rejection of that which is foreign to it, however glamorous. This is a curious way to make such a point. They are likening Amis to Waugh and Huxley, which is curiouser and curiouser. e. case