The general's classic subjectivity, which Mr. Willingham has avoided like the plague in his "objective" novel, relegates women to the status of the useless damned for breeding only, and proudly implies that no pansy like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Socrates, Walt Whitman, etc. could graduate from his academy, by God. Now, if the author were trying to picture the military mind in all its pompous bestiality through this man, he has to explain why the general is the only really stable person in the book, the only intelligent one and the most honorable. Everyone else seems to have been borrowed from Charles Addams cartoons. And if the author disagrees with this speech which contains his title, he must explain his scenes which describe the supposed opposite of manliness. His two homosexuals are possibly the most revolting figures ever rendered in print. Their ideas, mannerisms and anatomies are pictured in words of utter revulsion. One of them is apparently so inept at seduction and wholly unaware of the availability of the young male in a femaleless atmosphere that he goes so far as to attempt blackmailing a handsome cadet into his bed.

The statistics of homosexual practices in male institutions are ignored and the reader is hereby instructed that such is a universal habit of "perverts" who can only gain their ends by criminal or at least unethical means.

This book is required reading for every complacent homosexual who feels that prejudice against him is really on the wane. Its ferocity and positive conviction are enough to strike terror in the deviant who wants nothing more than an ordinary, tranquil life, respect and an opportunity to work. Mr. Willingham would seem to have him erased from the face of the earth.

As an added inducement to investing several hours and thirty-five cents in END AS A MAN, there is the charmingly inconsistent fact that every four letter word in the language is printed here except the most commonly used, hence less forceful, one. It is indicated by a dash between its first and last letters. Perhaps this restraint was legal but it still brings an angry smile. The book itself brings only anger.

Elizabeth Lalo

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