The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-03-26
Key Books
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tfAUOOh, ny J3Web Auee fulk-
lips, detective novel, published by
Macmillan Company, New York
City, 165 pages.)
The dust Jacket on this book des-
cribes the tale as muscular head
long fiction, and II is that!
An American pilot gets a job
with an Always company and be-
gins managing the transporting of
guns and ammunition for the Bur-
mese government in its fight
against a rebel faction. The hero,
Joe Gall, tangles with everything
from an Eurasian night club singer
to thieves who steal his planes and
pilots.
| Most of the action is in Rangoon
and all the scenes of the book are
backdropped by the strangeness of
Burma and the east. A glamourous
| girl squats ca rug eating lichee
nuts, another appears Slumberous
and part of the starlit night on a
lalcony. shouting brown boys fly
butterfly shaped kites in the dusk.
a huge pagoda looms festooned
with streamers Of fog.
| Planes roar all through the book,
powering their way through the
skies, taxing in and out of the
airfield. And there is fighting in the
skies with mortar shells 'churning
up geysers of earth west of the air
port" And it is queer battle. II
goes en- for three hours and then
suddenly stops. The American pi-
lot, Joe Gall, orders a pot Of tea
and thinks it a proper way to fight
a war, "shoot them while it's cool,
and then everybody knock off for
the day" And then he runs into
murder, Burmese water festivals,
and snipers In the shadows Of the
pagoda.
The author knows his airplanes
and his Burma, and he also knows
how TO maintain fast pace in a
story.
LET'S MEET, THE BALLET,
by Dorothy Samachscl. non-fiction,
illustrated with photographs, pub
lished by Henry Schuman, New
York City, 2O2 pages.)
The dance is the Oldest art form
known to man. As he observed the
beauty and poetry OF motion in ami.
mails, in the wind in the trees, in
the running and leaping & crea-
lures like himself, he began to in
vent special ways TO concentrate
poetry in movement. in the dance.
Primitive tribes have danced
from the beginning Of recorded his
tory the Egyptians, Babyionians,
Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Indi-
ans. Sometimes they danced for the
sheer pleasure OF it, and sometimes
because they thought it would
! please their gods or spirits and
bring rain, win battles or protect
them from lighting.
Ballet is . special dance form,
| ana il was born about the time
Columbus was discovering Ameri-
ca.
Most people enjoy ballet without
any particular desire to know its
history, the technicalities Of its
presentation. or the work that goes
into the formation Of a ballet
troop. They are not awfully sure
what arabesque means or pas de
deux. They are satisfied TO enjoy
the twirls and the. leaps and let 1t
60 at that. But there are others
who are more curious. They want
! TO know about tho composer the
costume designer, the choreo-
! grapher, and even the angel of
the company. They want to know
the lines between classical ballet,
the character ballet, the ethmic
dance and the modern dance.
| This look gives all this informa-
ton in very readable form and with
excellent photographic illnstra
tons. And it also tells the outline
stories Of about twenty repreSen-
tativcs ballets, and includes inter-
view chapters with several impor-
tant ballet figures.
WIND IN THE WILLOWS by
/ Kenneth Graham. Reprint Of ami
NAL fiction for children. Published
by Grosset and Dunlap, New York
City, $50 pages.)
An inexpensive reprint of a chill
dren's classic sometimes reviyes
well-deserved reader interest in an
excellent book which has not been
brought sufficiently to the attention
Of parents and teachers.
Wind in the willows Is one of the
most delightful books ever written
for children. Kenneth Graham has
caught the feel of the world in
! which small animals live. II Is the
world we see when we peer under
bushes, or lie down on our sto-
machs on a forest floor or river
bank and stare at the moss, the
bluebells and the patted down pla.
ecs where small animals have lived
and slept.
The characters who move mcst
prominently IN the book are the
Water Rat, the Mole. the Toad, and
the Badger. Now there are several
interesting things about these fel.
lows. For one thing they all seem
TO be gentlencn bachelors. In the