Fleming
GOODBYE TO THE BOMBAY BOWLER
`This last Strix selection from the Spectator indicates no scraping of the barrel-bottom. These twoscore pieces buoyantly uphold Mr Fleming's reputation as a master of the politely comic.'
PUNCH 155
VAHE KATCHA
The Hook An Eye for an Eye
These two compulsively read- able short novels in one volume are concerned with what happens to fairly normal lives when a black obsession is thrust on them out of the blue.
13s 6d
Febo de Se
The Minister. By Maurice Edelman. (Hamish Hamilton, 16s.)
The Fox and the Camellias. By Ignazio Silone. Translated by Eric Mosbacher. (Cape, 13s. 6d.)
The Necklace of Kali. By Robert Towers. (Cape, 18s.)
The Reckoning. By Michael Horbach. Translated by Norman Denny. (Bodley Head, 15s.)
SINCE man never ceases to boast that he is rational, it is disquieting to reflect on the abiding part played in human affairs by totally irrational acts. Destructive or at least self-destructive, such acts are yet innocent of deliberate perverseness or brutality; born of instantaneous and inexplic- able impulse, as it would seem, they reflect only the muddle and sheer squalor of the human breed, or at best an infantile readiness to reach out for the fire because it is such a pretty colour. The first two of the novels under review are concerned with the consequences of such acts, the other two (rather boldly) with their origins.
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