The second writes his second novel, The Words of My
Roaring, which takes us refreshingly far from home to a parched Alberta in the 1930s, where a Swedish-Canadian undertaker promises rain in return for votes. As its huge hero saunters about into things he can't deal with, it is tender and likeable, a kind of apocalyptic comedy; but a bit thinly spread, a short story spun into a long one:
It takes a peculiar sort of genius to write a really good historical novel, but down among the middling history stands a fair chance of suc- cess because at least it has things to tell you, in- formation you may not have had before, so agreeably presented, anyway. Wife to the Bastard is a timely tale that has at last put straight in my mind the intricacies of the Conqueror's rela- RACE-
HATRED THROUGH THE POST
—a psychiatrist analyses the psycho- pathology of abusive letters.
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