The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1953-10-30
KEY BOOKS
sy a. o :. eINcRAs

CTHE BRIDGES or ToKoRI b,
James A. Kitchener, contemporary
novel, published by Random House
A57 Madison New York City,
This short novel by the author
Of "Tales Of the South Pacific. |.
shows Mr.. Kitchener continuing IN
his role as a top notch story teller
Of men at war.
To most readers an aircraft car
rier Is a cumbersome gray craft
with Q nat surface. where combat
planes aiight gracefully and easily
after they have dropped their
bombs. Mr.. Michener's new book
scraps that vague concept, and puts
In its place the living. breathing
drama Of this new ship born Of the
air age. The landing Of the jets on
the carrier every evening becomes
q test Of skin and wits. Beer Bar
rell," the man largely responsible
Cor the landings, Is a figure magnn-
icent and comic at the same time.
Jet planes aAd heliocopters I'M
der the authors effective pen, are
something which the reader exper-
fences intimately. Without senti-
mentality, be manages TO put over
what these aircraft mean to US In
q war, and also to the men who
guide them In battle.
And the author does not depend
IN any way on an overdose Of four
letter woodshed words and sheet.
by-loin descriptions Of bed scenes
to show the humanity Of his men.
The reader Is well aware Of the
grim realities Of war, and Of their
effect on the men who fight, and
on their families. But always he
handles these realities with under
standing and restraint.
Only one major fault seems to
emerge In the telling Of Mr.. Mich
ener's story. Every now and then
It seems as II the War Department
taps him on the shoulder, and re-
minds him he is writing about the
war In Korea and not about some
universal project Of modern air
warfare. And at the reminder the
author for q spell lays the propa-
ganda on little thick, In order to
put the point over fictionally to a
purportedly listless American pub
lie.
tMoSTLY MURDER by Frederic
Brown, collection Of short murder
mysteries, published by E. P. Dut.
ton Company, 800 Fourth Ave-,
New York City, 247 pp.)
The dust jacket, az this book
shows the face Of aHnurderer done
In orange-red with black shadows.
The loose flesh dtIops in vicious
folds, one mean eye Is shut, and a
limp cigarette Is balanced on the
fellows cruel mouth.
And Immediately beyond The
dust jacket, the succession of kill.
ers begin their killings, some OF
them lurid, some mediocre.
In the first yarn a laughing but.
cher who had once been Q magician
IN a circus, laughs once too often.
In the -Four Blind Men" circus
folk are again the principal figures,
and the ringmaster is the corpse,
"The Night the World Ended
Is one Of the best stories in the
book. A night city editor who j.
given to cruel practical joking
plays a prank that effects johnny
Gin. Johnny Is ''just another
punchy stew-hum, who had at,
tached himself to the Greeks place
because Nick gave him drinks and
pretzels for sweeping out and mop,
ping up and cuspidor cleaning. q
And this prank is the city editors
Waterloo in practical joking.
Little Apple Hard to Peel'' 4.
one Of the finest short murder
stories which this reviewer has
ever come across. II covers Che
lifetime of two men, q killer and
Of his victims from their grade
school days to their middle age
The author manages to pack enough
fine characterization, suspense and
good story telling TO place II in q
class with some of the best II
American short fiction.
The only danger In having 50
many murder tales between The
same covers Is that the reader
may be inclined to become a little
elephant skinned, and take them
with increasing less seriousness as
he wades through the blood and
pistol shots TO the last yarn.
JUNIOR SELECTION
(LITTLE DERMOT AND THE
THIRSTY STONES and other Irish