BOOKS

PARK BEAT

by Reginald Harvey Castle Books, New York, 1959, $3.00, 189 pp.

This is it, man, a true-to-life, a hard-hitting book about the homosexuals who cruise the biggest park in the biggest city of the U.S. Though I know nothing about the author, he certainly knows his police force and the plainclothes vice-squad.

In the heat of summer, many people gather in Central Park, but the most interesting people in this novel are the homosexuals. These are the ones who sit on park benches in T-shirts and tight levis, and more and more of them gather as night comes on. They pair off, those that are lucky, and they go to their partner's place or wind up in the bushes of the park.

The story is told through the minds of seven different characters, and how their paths criss-cross before and when they enter Central Park. There are four men: A Puerto Rican killer named Franco; Joe, a homosexual hustler; Bert, a guy discovering his own homosexuality; and Hal, the policeman whose beat was the park beat. Of the girls there are: Kathy, who is soon to marry a lawyer, but understands more about Bert's homosexuality than he does; Felicidad, a Puerto Rican who is lonely and finally decides on having a man ravish her and then pays the fatal price; and another Puerto Rican named Maria who is in love with Franco the killer. One fault I find with the book, however, one gets no clear picture of what the characters look like. You cannot tell one character from another except by their names, and yet, their actions

one

speak louder and makes up for this deficiency.

The writing is no literary work of art, but it's raw, naked life as it is lived today, in almost any park in any big city. The actions may seem revolting, but are true to form. You are there when a gay guy attempts to unzip the trousers of a vice squad plant and you witness what happens. You are there when two guys are making love in the bushes and a flashlight shines in their faces held in the hand of a vice-squader. There are tense moments when a character has to hurriedly pull up his pants and run like hell.

I liked this book; I heartily recommend it. It is a small book, but well worth the price. It is a down-to-earth and reveals the new-found loves and the shattered lives that occur in a city park, night after night after night. -Arnell Larsen

THE FEATHERS OF DEATH

by Simon Raven Anthony Blond Limited, London, E.C.1, England, $3.50 pp. 254.

Here is a novel concerning itself with life in a British Regimental Unit on location in a remote Colony beset with Native political uprisings. While the greater portion of the narrative details all other political implications and phases of personal and collective existence one is likely to find in any such congregation of men, there is, also, the theme of homosexuality. The relationship between a Troop Leader and a Drumer-boy has the stamp of something more than mutual regard; there is tragedy involved; the reactions to the intimations run the gamut one would expect from such diverse sources; there is the inevitable discovery and conventional disgrace; and the moral is left to the reader. The author, having a very good back-