The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1953-10-01

(YOU SHALL KNOW THEM by
Vercors, translated from the Fren
|by Rita Barisse, satirical novel
published by Little Brown and Co.,
Boston, Mass.)
In a one-woman book column,
with only an occasional guest re-
viewer, the criticism must of ne
cessity be more laudatory than
seems warranted by the great
quantity of second rate volumes
that glut the book market today.
The reason for this is not because
Of any innate literary politeness on
the part of the columnist and critic.
liz is simply because with only a
limited amount of reading time, the
reviewer attempts thru previous
regulations of authors and cata-
Ilogue blurbs, to choose only the
creme de la creme" for review.
Sometimes she misses in her Sc
lection and the literary fur flies.
But usually she is pretty sure the
book has genuine merit before she
starts.
And the reason for this apologe-
tica for praise is the new book by
Vercors, a French author with two
volumes already to his credit. The
novel is very entertaining. 1t is
satire with real thought behind it,
laid in Britain and New Guinea
and with murder, suspense and 70.
nance thrown in with grace.
The idea behind the book is a
permanently exciting one, even to-
day when the theory of evolution
is accepted by most people as
closer to the truth than anything
else man has devised or scienti-
fically evolved to explain him.
self. No exact definition of man
has ever been made by man. even
by the rational French who are
given to correct codification. Where
does the ape end and man begin?
If a specimen tribe of Neanderthal
men were to appear somewhere
suddenly today, would we classify
them as men or as beasts?
In Mr.. Vercors' novel ape-like
Imen, the tropis, are found some
where in New Guinea. The scien'
fists who discovered them are moi
at all sure whether they may be
more correctly classified as men
Tor apes. An opportunist immedi.
ately emerges in the wake of the
Itropi most involved in the story?
wants to exploit these ape-like
men on an assembly line. And in
order to force the law to come to
order to force the law to come to
some kind of a stand on the matter,
several female tropis are artifically
disseminated by a human man. As
a result all the tropis give birth tc
Offspring.
And that's where things star
moving fast. The author introduces
murder and a sensational trial,
Then the British Parliament itself
gets entangled, the Lord Privy
Seal, and an enraged public opin
lion.
At times the book does seem Il
lshift awkwardly in its viewpoints
land sometimes parts do sound like
Ia lawyers brief or a scientist:
dissertation on paleontology or an
Ithropology. but these flaws are
minor.
And may this reviewer suggest
THAT Mr.. Vercors do sequel OF
what happened to Derry, the lady
ltropi most involved in the story
lMightn't she brood over all this il
some way and come back anG
make off with the child of DougIa!
land Frances? Anyway it offend!
lartistically and the cause of man.
humanity to man Mr.. Vercors pur
lports to champion, TO drop Derr.
like hot-fossil after she has borne
THE man-inseminated child.
l(DAY OF THE HARVEST by Hel
len Upshaw. novel Of the south
published by Bobhs Merrill com