The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1953-01-21
KY Books
by A. de T. Gingras

published by Rinehart and Com
pany, Inc: New York City, 312
Mr.. Wiley uses south Florida as
the setting for these long stories
which first appeared in Saturday
Evening Post.
"The Struggled Atom Bomb is
a spy yarn, and brings the villain
right into the midst of a very
law-abiding American household
near Miami Beach.
Moving. lawns and peeling pota-
toes goes on in the midst Of uran-
ium boarding and secret meetings
of subversives.
The principal character is
favorite type of American fiction
hero. He is awkward, scholarly,
kind Cinderella type of fellow
whose talents take a long time to
be recognized by the heroine and
everybody else.
Secret trips to Baltimore and
New York, night visits to the ware
houses of giant trucking COM
panies, a rendezvous with a white
Russian college widow, a mad
sailing to the Bahamas, and the
explosion of an atom bomb, are
all included in the swift action
pattern of the tale.
The only thing which seems un-
convincing to this reviewer is one
of the villains. During the course
of a lifetime he is not rewarded,
and the author has not shown a
sufficient motivation for his fanatic
brooding desire to destroy.
The second story Sporting
Blood" involves Crunch and Des,
two characters already introduced
by Mr.. Wiley in other stories.
These two fishing guides of south
ern Florida waters get mixed up
with a family of sporting blue
bloodS.
Experiment in Crime" the
third story, takes young man
normally untouched by any but the
most usual occurrences, and living
in the very familiar milieu of a
university in Miami, and losses
him into cops and robbers tale.
Suddenly revealed to the young
college professor hero is world
of vice and dangerous romance
which has never been revealed in
either his lectures, or his text
books on the stupidity of criminals.
JUNIOR SELECTIONS
(PUSS IN BOOTS, by Charles Per-
rault, pictures by Marcia Brown,
translation of old French tale, pub
lished by Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York City,
Even more famous than the
Giants seven league boots and
Cinderella's slipper, are PusS's
boots!
Scribners offers English-reading
children PusS in a bright new
cherry-colored version of his boots,
and a crimson plume to match.
The tale starts with the three
inevitable sons of the fairy tale
pattern of the western world. Their
father is a miller, and when he
dies, the eldest son gets the mill,
the second, the ass, and the young
est, the cat. And from then on,
it is up to Puss to see that the
third son receives as acceptable
heritage as the other two.
And so Puss and his master
move through adventures involving
a beautiful princess, golden coach
es and castles.
And everything winds up with
the youngest son, as the Marquis
de Carabas, walking off with the
happy ending and the hand of the
princess tucked under his arm.
Which brings this reviewer to
on the influence of fairy
tale patters. If the first and second
sons, or the first or second daugh-
tiers of families in the western
world have subconscious guilt
it has something to do
with these once-upon-a-time tales.
And If the youngest son or daugh-
ter are early convinced the world
is their peculiar brand of oyster
all opened and dripped in butter,
The fairy tale is also to blame.
The third and Youngest of the
traditional once-upon-a-time three
always walks off with the gravy,
the meat and the jam. The two
oldest, whether they be CindereIla's
Step-sisterS or the two in this tale
who get the mill and the ass, are
destined to be unbeautiful and no
iarlings Of fortune.
HIGH WATER AT CATFISH
BEND by Ben Lucien Burman,
by Alice Caddy,
rhild's book. published by Julian
Messner. Inc, New York City. 121
pages.)
While this story doesn't reach
the caliber Of Wind In the willows
Or Bambi, Mr.. Burman demon
strates a very nice gift Of per-
in his attribution Of
human qualities to his animals,
Besides, the animals have al