Now I am beginning to get angry for having allowed myself to get angry. I am not at all the type who waves flags or beats big drums of passion, although it has tempted me to try learning how to play the trombone. Is that Freudian? No, I have seen great beauty on the screen, drank champagne in December, and found my sandy place in the sun on the gay beachI have lived. I am a gal of grit and sun lotions, and a few emotional keys to the alternating doors of my pain and pleasure; like a child I sing a lot to myself. But my real love is people, our people, and we do need you, ONE, we do-

Yours in gratitude and my best wishes,

JF

BOOKS

Jean Genêt

For one who has read many books and studied in many fields, it is very difficult to discover an author whose work is entirely new and who breaks the continuity of all that has preceded him. Although the writings of Jean Genêt at times suggest glimpses of Sartre, Gide, and others, they come very close to being unique in the literary world. This unique character is reflected in the critical and interpretative comment on them which varies from the statement of Jean Cocteau that Genêt was the "greatest

moralist of his time" to that of a recent writer that he wades in filth for purposes of "literary ambition" and "commercial" gain. However, even the New Yorker grants him poetic and distinguished qualities as well as dramatic effectiveness.

Jean Genêt was was an illegitimate child, born in Paris in 1910 of unknown parents. Adopted by a peasant family, he was started on a career of crime and wandering at ten years of age when he was placed in a reformatory for stealing. The remain-

23