Books in Brief: The Seventh Night

THE SEVENTH NIGHT, by Ladislav Mnacko — (Dutton, $5.95).

Like many American liberals, Mnacko sees his world crumbling about him, but still advocates policies certain to repeat and compound past errors. — Described as Czechoslovakia’s Lippmann or Reston, he wails bitterly about the USSR’s — occupation of his country last year and complains about the Soviets’ breaking faith — with their most reliable partners in “so- | cialism.” Mnacko admits sinning in past © years in the name of his ideals, but he offers as expiation instances of his aid to victims of the system. He fails even to attempt a synthesis of his simultaneous beliefs in individual initiative and “socialism.” But he does recognize that “logic is no weapon against a bureaucratic dictatorship,” a truth that bears some repeating in this country. Descriptions of some events, such as purges and interrogations, could have been lifted out of Darkness at Noon, especially when Mnacko turns the tables on a secret policeman by “arresting” him and breaking him down after seven hours — of browbeating. A couple of anecdotes debunk much of what we have been told about “liberalization” in Russia. That “the Soviet Union has pushed her strategic frontiers nearer the West” is complained about only because the move was at the expense of Mnacko’s country. Although in exile in Austria, Communism’s answer to Walter Wonderful somehow fails to draw the obvious conclusions from his long ex- — perience with his chosen faith.

DD

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D. B. Duval

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THE SEVENTH NIGHT, by Ladislav Mnacko — (Dutton, $5.95).

Like many American liberals, Mnacko sees his world crumbling about him, but still advocates policies certain to repeat and compound past errors. — Described as Czechoslovakia’s Lippmann or Reston, he wails bitterly about the USSR’s — occupation of his country last year and complains about the Soviets’ breaking faith — with their most reliable partners in “so- | cialism.” Mnacko admits sinning in past © years in the name of his ideals, but he offers as expiation instances of his aid to victims of the system. He fails even to attempt a synthesis of his simultaneous beliefs in individual initiative and “socialism.” But he does recognize that “logic is no weapon against a bureaucratic dictatorship,” a truth that bears some repeating in this country. Descriptions of some events, such as purges and interrogations, could have been lifted out of Darkness at Noon, especially when Mnacko turns the tables on a secret policeman by “arresting” him and breaking him down after seven hours — of browbeating. A couple of anecdotes debunk much of what we have been told about “liberalization” in Russia. That “the Soviet Union has pushed her strategic frontiers nearer the West” is complained about only because the move was at the expense of Mnacko’s country. Although in exile in Austria, Communism’s answer to Walter Wonderful somehow fails to draw the obvious conclusions from his long ex- — perience with his chosen faith.