The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-11
Bound To Be Read

TN "A Leaf in the storm" CJohn
 \ Day) Dr. Lln Yu-tang has writ- ten what he insists s novel Of war-SWept China but which in es- senee is e broad segment of the true story of China's fight for life. In all but the main characters, who may be fictitious but who might well be real, Dr, Lin has written history rather than fiction. His story, built around some of the characters who appeared in Dr. Lin's Moment in Picking" Is beau- tifuliy told,
 Three chief characters, two men and Q girl, live an intense emo. tional drama in scenes of war and turmoil and the mass migration of millions. Surrounding their eXper- fences, the author has told simply but wildly tho tale Of China's ever. increasing resistance to Japanese aggression.
 Some of tho people who appear in"A Leaf in the Storm" are so real that pr. Lin has used genu. inc names. To tho reader who knows China and has lived in it the boko can hardly appear Os other than history. To the reader who Is not an old China -hand, "A Leaf tn tho Storm" should give much understanding of why China Stil is ct war 10 years after the invasion of Manchuria and four and one.half years after the in. vasion of China inside the Great Wall by Q power far.and away outs matching her in military might,
 Repeatedly Dr. Lin remarks that "war does strange things to peo- plo" and he shows that among the strange things it has done Is to make China fight.
 "A Leaf in the storm" iS c worth- while book, interpreting the soul of China as 1t should DO interpreted --hy A Chinese,
 STRANdE g as, dead kings, and 1 life in old Hawaii are the top- les in William II. Chickering's within the Sound of These Waves" (Harcourt, BrAcc). With the aid of three illustrations by q master Of Hawaiian etchings, John Kelly, the author seeks to bring alive the Col. den Age of the Hawaiian Monarchy, before the coming of white men and during the transition period when the Hawaiian Islands were Polyne- sian in race, manner and custom,
 His story deals with the first of the greater rulers on the island, down through the more pictur- eSque figures of royalty to Kane. hamehA the Great and his sons. To the western reader Hawaiian martial custcnS Eaay seem atnaz- ing, with woman marrying their husbands sons, and sisters joined with brothers in symbolical wed- dingS designed to preserve gpirl- tually tabu royal lines. The feuds and wars between chieftains are neither better nor worse than tribal battles carried on between men of all races in all times.
 IT R. KN1CKERHoCKER, foreign Ike correspondent and lecturer, de- votes most of his new book, "Is To- morrow Hitler's?" (Reynal &s Hitch. cOck), to answering 200 questions which he says are typical of those asked by thousnads of Americans during his tours. His theme has some wide variations, ranging from the belief that the assassination of Hitler would go far toward ending the Nazi revolution, to the aSsretlon that the United States should get ino the war quickly and be prepared o send a great expeditionary force abroad.
 THE distinguished editorial writ A CT of the Baltimore Evening Sun, Gerald w. Johnson, poses and answers the question put In Roosevelt: Dictator or Democrat?" (Harpers). His thesis is simple. If | President Roosevelt is a man whose ideals are alien to America, if he is @ man swayed by strange ambi- | tionS to overturn the American ! ideal, he is dangerous executive. If, on the other hand, he is a figure squarely in the main stream of | American tradition, if his ambi. tionS and objectives stem directly from the same source which gave this nation such men as Jackson, Jefferson and Wilson, then much | of the fear of Roosevelt is un- founded. Johnson dedicates his proof to the second proposition. THE years between the Spanish 4 American War and the World War have come to be known as the good old days" In Wears of Illusion" Doubleday, Doran), Har- old Sinclair skaters most fo those myths by telling the stroy of Ever ton, 1ll., small town that grew In those years to an industrial center. More specifically 1t is the story of John Ransom, a rich young man whose life is complicated by women, liquor-nelther in excess--a lumber yard and newspaper, and Parnell MCGuire, young Irishman who dug out an education and Q career by himself and at the end of the noval starts off to a greater adven- ture in the World War. Numerous .R.as- A.. '