Evening star., 1948-11-07
ACoIorfuI,
Travel Treat
By BemeImuns
THE BEST OF TIMES
BY Ludwig Bemelmans.
(Sinofa & Schuster;; $685.

BY Ludwig Bemelmans.
(Stmoa & Schuster; $685.
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
In this engaging notebook. "ar
account of Europe revisited" the
author takes his title from a famous
passage from Dickens "A Tale o1
Two Cities" beginning: "1t was the
best Of times, it was the worst oil
times. it was the age of wisdom
1t was the age of foolishness >
There are so color and ITO black
illustrations by Mr.. Bemelmans
and. if you know him of oldr you
need not be told that these alone
make the book worth owning.
TIE text and the sketches are
based on his wanderings about
France, Germany, Austria and Italy
in 1946 and 1947. Then, to check
up on his impressions, he made q
quick trip over the same territory
in the summer of '43. He found very
little changed, he says, in a post.
script. In Paris "the black market
restaurant had disappeared, and its
place was taken by the chi-chi res
taurant ." He explained, ir
his chapter on Paris, that in most
of the chi-chi places the walters
stand around talking to themselves
and each other all night, and il
will be that way until sanity returns
There aren't enough silken sheer
to shear just now" And he added
that this organized thievery and
mischief" was not confined to Paris
but "is an international game that
proprietors and maitres d'hotel play
with gusto in New York. Holly.
wood, Rio, Rome and all over the
rest of the world"
The book is not all gayety. There
Is a deeper note at times. Mr.
Bemelmans warns the reader at the
outset that in spite of its gay pic
lures, this did not turn out to be
an altogether happy book"
And yet the author of Blue
Danube" and Dirty Eddie has
extracted what whimsical humor
there was from a sick and not-too-
hopeful Europe. He has, more
over. some good advice for pros
pective tourists.
A CONVOY THROUGH THE
DREAM
BY Scott Graham Williamson.
(Mdcmillan; $780,
Mr.. Williamson has written a
memorable novel about the war.
It is different in theme and set
ting and development from any
other war story I've read. 1t is
a highly personalized version,
and yet there is a universally in
its tragedy.
Eric Clark. a teacher of sociology
was in Washington in the middle OF
the war. He was in the Office of
War Information. He and his wife
Jane had a basement apartment on
tina near Northwest side. Jane had
been in one of his classes at CAL
ifornia college; they were very much
in love.
Eric was writing broadcasts set
ting out our war aims. Suddenly it
came to him that he didn't know
what he was writing about, that he
didn't know what the war was all
about. He tried to enlist. All the
armed services turned him down for
one physical deficiency or another.
He finally got into the merchant
marine. Since amateur wireless had
been his hoybood hobby, he was
able to pass the examination for
radio officer. He sailed on the S. S.
william Benson, bound for some
unknown port with a cargo of coal.
Who Was the Enemy?
He felt that If he could get close
10 the war he might find answers
10 some of the questions that
pressed him. Who was the enemy?
Nazis were only half the answer, he
felt. Why were the Nazis enemies,
why had they fallen for the doc
trines Hitler preached? There were,
Eric was sure, deeper explanations
somewhere-of this and every other
war.
The William Benson went to Italy,
then to North Africa, then back
over the Mediterranean and into the
Adriatic. The story of her adven-
ture-of the crew, especially the
ships officers, with their likings and
hatreds for one another, their little
cliques, their ideas of the world in
general, or lack of them-is absorb
ing. There is always peril The
convoy is attacked by planes in the
Mediterranean. But mostly it is an
account of Eric's futile struggle for
enlightenment. 1t led him on a
drunken orgy in an Italian port
with fellow officers, until, finding
parents ready to sell their daugh-
ters for a few luxuries, he realized
NTH q shock what defeat meant,
how a people could be thrown into
physical and moral chaos. He saw
italians half drowned in the rag
ing food of history" After that he
Ralked alone and avoided such
lights, though he could not forget
haem.
z Eric found life rawer, the ANAL
GUM of nationalities more primitive
h the North African ports. And he
hrooded on. still seeking answers
and finding none, as the ship started
On fateful voyage into the Adriatic
81 Mr.. Williamson has gift for
crisp expression, for phrases that
Rand out like etckings. There Is
much preoccupation with sex,
ashore and afloat, and there are
plenty of the words that used to be
tinprintable. And yet, underneath
These strong, sometimes malodorous
externals, it Is a clean book, even
kpiritual after a fashion, though
taith in q merciful God or in any
thing else is not conspicuous. The
characters are distinct and cred
he. t-.