The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-08-23

climate makes most of the articles
sketchy. In the course of an aver
age lifetime the writer cannot, for
example, cover all the f..olkways
and temperaments of all white
perch prowling all our waters.
GLOVER m THE GUTTER by
Ion Brady. Contemporary novel,
published by E. P. Dutton & Co.,
New York City, $50 pages. QUEST
REVIEW BY A. H. WATNEY,
English journalist.
The action of this book takes
place in Berlin Immediately be-
fore and after the fall of the city,
and during its occupation by the
Russian troops. 1t portrays the
surrender of the Nazi capital and
at the same time has a wider
significance in its picture Of any
large city on the eve of final de-
feat. The tale is grimly authentic,
the atmosphere of gradually mount
ing tension excellently rendered.
The author takes a representa-
tive group of German citizens, and
by describing with impartial YER
acity their emotions and behavior,
he uncovers for US all the ugly
symptoms inseparable from defeat
the cruelty, suspicion, cowardice,
curtain of civilized manners. Men
and women 60 back to primitive
level where hunger and despair are
an excuse for previously unGream-
ed-of actions.
The principal character, Veronik
Rathke, tries harder than the other
| to retain certain standards of de.
cency and honesty. But in the end
she too surrenders in part to the
moral destruction which losing a
war brings in its train. She is moi
la wholly appealing heroine,
Sometimetimes she is left un'
moved at the sight Of death and
suffering. She can watch an old
horse killed, and be the first tc
cut meat from it. Yet she does
more than any of her fellow citizen
to help find doctor for woman
she hardly knows, who is crying
out for help in childbirth. Her para
doxical attitude may suggest q
true picture of the Nazi idea, thai
the future race is all-important
the aged and infirm useless. While
she denies Nazi sympathies, hel
whole personality has been shaped
by the same theology, the worship
Of strength, physical or moral
| The remaining characters art
finely drawn. The Jeschkels, Bloc
mer, even Kappel, are rea
people, yet they seem intended BY
the author as symbols. In every tt
war there may be another Bloem
err, another Jeschkel. They are i'm
portant in so far as they represen
a way of life, and it is this way
| Of life that crumbles in the tense
days when they wait for the enemy
to arrive. It Is unimportant thai
this Is Berlin, and the conquerors
| the Russians. II would be the sam,
| IL the town were Prague or Lon
don, Paris or New York, and the
occupying forces Chinese or Egypt
ian.
| The novel tells of the disruption
of normal civilian life and the sud
den shift of values. Fur coats are
considered q good exchange for q
bicycle or a few potatoes, the mair
city services cease to function a:
the guns come nearer, and hope
finally gives way to despair. The
conquerors follow the same pattern
Of murder, rape and loot soldiers
have always followed in their frs
! delirium of victory. Perhaps IL j:
unfortunate that the scene of The
action is Berlin. Unconsciously tho
! reader remembers the smoke from
the crematories of the concen
, tration camps which minimizes ths
sympathy the characters deserve
in the horror of wars aftermath
| The thought recurs that one TRACE
| dy is the inevitable outcome Of the
other.
II is not clear whether this rather
depressing novel was written b
point q moral about what can ahp
pen to the Master Races Of thu
world or as q warning against de
feat q modern "vae victis!" In,
author has succeeded in interpret
ing the horrors Of warfare and ii
destruction Of az that is best il
mankind. the vital qualities Of love
honesty, fair-mindedness. But h
did not carry his theme to Il
taUiraf enreIusin, Tia anAin0 I,