The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-03-12
BOUND TOBE READ

TT TAKES only an hour and a \ half to read, "The Moon Is Down" (Viking), but John Steinbeck has packed a powerful story Into a minimum of words.
 This is a little story of war and its theme is "The people don't like to be conquered and so they will not be-" It is about simple people in simple and gentle (for Steinbeck) language.
 The land can be conquered and the people can be beaten, starved, impressed and shot, but never will they be conquered. That Is the ser mon of steinbeck in "The Moon Is Down."
 Unusual in story of this kind is the failure to build up Q case of hate for the invader. You learn that the invader is human, too, and that while carrying out the memorable or- ders of "The Leader" he also has his fears, heartaches, misgivings and doubts.
 Mayor orden is the main charac- ter and the story Is built around the organized passive resistance of a small town across the channel from England. The invader is quite sure of himself and his position at first. The formula is all down in black and white in the little book. But the formula has failed to take into consideration the unconquerable spirit of man--of the people.
 4 poignant paragraph comes to mind in reviewing this book--the raving of a hysterical lieutenant of the invaders staff, who says: Con- quest after conquest, deeper and deeper into the molasSes. Maybe the Leader is crazy. Flies conquer the flypaper. Flies capture 200 miles of new flypaper."
 r 1EUT. COL. w. F. HERMAN, Q A field artillery officer at Fort Sills, Okla, has written in Defense will Not Win the War" (Iittle, Brown), an explosive attack on de- fensive strategy and what has be- come known in military circles as ''Magfnot Line mentality"
 He believes that the United States must launch at the earliest moment 6 grand offensive against Germany on the most sweeping terms possible and that this is necessary not only to win the war but to avoid losing it..
 He Is sharp critic of the theory that we can win by fighting the war along the edges"-on the fringes of the southwest Pacific, in Africa or by maintaining defensive bases in such points as Iceland, Ireland or even West Africa.
 He favors disreg@rding the pos- sible damage which enemy raids and attacks might cause us in exposed positions in the Atlantic and Pacific and throwing our full strength to- gether with that of Britain at he main enemy-Germany.
 Lieut.. Col. Herman believes Ger many's strength is extended and that Hitler called on Japan to at tack in the Far East in order to di- vert our strength to that theater and prevent us from building up an of- fensivedorce in the main battle area Europe.
 WHILE pr. Wheaton j. Lane was
 w engaged in research for From Indian Trail to Iron Horse" he came across the fact that there was no modern biography of Cornfnodare Vanderbilt, who was identified with transportation, both water and rail, during much of the 18th century.
 He dug into the records and came up with a book to fill the need Commodore Vanderbilt" (Knopf) |, sub- titled "An Epic of the Steam Age" It is the first Alfred A. Knopf Fellowship biography.
 ! Vanderbilt laid the foundation of the fortune that still makes the headlines by ferrying people back and forth from Staten Island to Manhattan before the War of 1912. He won a reputation for stability and promptness which eventually re- suited in ambitious water transpor- tation enterprises and later ctilmin- ated with his New York Central rail- road.
 pr. Lane lays his emphasis on Vanderbilt as 6 business man rather than as a stock market operator, al- though detailed accounts of the Commodore's financial forays are included.
 r ESTER V. BERREY and Melvin A Van Den Bark have completed a monumental task in converting the English language into American in "The American Thesaurus of Slang" (Crowell).
 There is no apparent field or way of life that has been sighted in these 1,l74 pages and the years of work spent by the authors in gath ering American colloquialisns is evident. It is patterned after Ro- gets International Thesaurus, with groupings under ideas instead of al- alphabetically.
 Until seeing them in print in this volume, 1t is hard to realize the idio- matic excesses of the American tongue. With an excellent index, this book automatically becomes a must" in the reference library. DEADING of "sea of Memories" lN (scribners) is next best to tour- ing the fringes of the Mediterra- mean with historian and much safer these days.
 Written by Charles Moran, retired naval officer, the book is a story of the fabled and historical lands that border on the blue sea where civ- liars lowered.
 Man first fared forth timidly on