Evening star., 1954-11-14
Books in Review
Paul GolIico's Fontosy of Life
Among Puppets Has Magic
Reviewed by Carter Brooke Jones

Reviewed by Ca
There's nothing easier to
read or harder to write than
the whimsical story that sue
ceeds in captivating readers.
Not all readers are suscepti-
BILE to the sorcery of a good
fantasy. They must not be
too literal-minded; they must
share with the author the sort
Of imagination which accepts
what happens without too
much question, however far it
may stray beyond ordinary ex-
perience. The writer, though,
must touch his theme with a
kind Of magic: otherwise he'll
fail. The danger is that he
will overwrite or underwrite,
turn his sentiment into senti-
mentality or bury the enchant-
ment of his idea under q heavy
detail of realism.
Sir James Barrie, at his best,
had the touch, though per-
haps Max Beerbohm was right
in saying that the author Of
Peter Pan" himself remained
q child.
Costs a Spell
This week Paul Calico turns
out what should become a
small classic in this difficult,
restricted field. In ''Love Of
Seven Dolls" doubleday;
$2.50) he has touched with
charm the brief story of a
French girl, a waif re-
jected by the world. The
writing is exactly what the
theme required. The effect is
q spell to bewitch the reader
who can see and feel with the
author.
The book begins: I'm Paris,
In the spring Of our times, a
young girl was about to throw
herself into the Seine"
She was grown, but re-
mained singularly naive and
ill-informed about the world.
Her name was Marelle, but her
nickname was Mouche Qittle
fly). She was a Bretonnaise
orphan and she had tried to
catch on in the theater. They
said she was too thin, too
plain. When she lost her last
job, a dance act with a street
carnival, she started for the
river. What was left for her?
AS she passed the fringes of
the carnival a voice called to
her and it came, of all places,
from a doll in the puppet show
which was being dismantled
for the next move. Carrot Top,
the puppet, a leprechaun, said:
"It's cold at the bottom of the
river, little one, and the eels
and the crayfish eat your
flesh"
Kind Puppets
The girl, invited to approach,
met the other puppets-Gigi
the glamour girl, Reynardo the
fox, Alifanfaron the giant,
Nine. Muscat the concierge,
M. Nicholas the toymaker,
DR.. Duclos the penguin.
All talked to her. It did
not occur to her until after
ward that the man who called
himself Capitaine Coo, who
owned the show, was a ven-
triloquist and could make the
puppets talk. But there was
something strange about it,
at that. for the captain was a
mean and brutal man, or GER
tainly appeared to be, and the
puppets were invariably kind
to her, and they actually
seemed to speak independently
and have lives of their own.
It was all puzzling.
In the end. Mouche got a
Job with the puppet show and
travelled with it. She sang and
talked to the puppets, and au-
diences loved the new act.
And yet she hated Capitaine
Cog hated him and loved
him. Good and evil seemed
perpetually at war in the cap
tain, whose boyhood had been
brutalized in the slun1s Of
Paris.
What happened to Mouche?
You'll never learn from me.
But If this sort of story ap-
peals to you, don't fail to ac-
quire Love Of Seven Dolls"
Study Of Demogogues
Reinhard H. Luthin, author
Of 1.-THE First Lincoln Cam
paign," has written american
Den1agogues: Twentieth Gen.
tury" Deacon Press; So. The
f10llrAS he HaccrihoS include