Books:

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In these days of the padded price it is not unusual to put down a book with the feeling that one has climbed the Matterhorn or swum the Hellespont; the two-volume novel seems about to return and the substitution of literature for bar-bells may be imminent. It is therefore doubly satisfying to put down a novel these days not only with a feeling of pleasure for what was in the book itself but with a keen sense of disappointment that the book was not longer. John Goodwin's THE IDOLS AND THE PREY (Harper, $3.50) is such a book.

The novels of Haiti that have been put before the American public up to now have had as their chief distinction their exotic background and soft palate speech. Mr. Goodwin offers much more. His vodoun ceremonial is not mere set-dressing; it is the honest and necessary basis for the development of Boyd Knowles' recognition of his own downfall.

Mme. Simone de Beauvoir's THE SECOND SEX (Knopf, $10.00) calls for comment far too long for us to devote in these few pages. Like Freud, Mme. de Beauvoir writes not as a scientist but as an artist and, again like Freud, she deserves her place with the poets. But one must make a few reservations: there are differences between American and European women and the American reader of THE SECOND SEX will find greater pleasure in reading the book with this awareness. It will be of interest to compare Dr. Kinsey's work on the American Woman with statistics and findings quoted by Mme. de Beauvoir when his latest work will be published in September.

THE IDOLS AND THE PREY is concerned with three Americans in Haiti and their attempts to rise out of the life about them and to sink deeper into a morass they have themselves made. It is the story of Hugh and Faith Cannery who have been marooned since the engine on their yacht broke down and the story of Boyd Knowles who, more and more, seeks to find in voodoo a release and an understanding that he finds nowhere else. Around them there is an intrigue woven that makes magic out of magic and is cruel only in its understanding. The lacy threads which eventually bind Boyd to the sophisticated mulatto Musset LaRoche and to the incredibly beautiful and completely amoral boy, Yatice, are none the less taut and strong for their involved delicacy.

But Mme. de Beauvoir is not only an artist: she is a level-headed thinker and writer as well: we quote briefly from her chapter The Lesbian:

"Like all human behavior, homosexuality leads to make-believe, disequilibrium, frustration, lies, or, on the contrary, it becomes the source of rewarding experiences, in accordance with its manner of expression in actual living-whether in bad faith, laziness, and falsity, or in lucidity, generosity, and freedom."

M. B.

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