BOOKS

Notices and reviews of books, articles, plays and poetry dealing with homosexuality and the sex variant. Readers are invited to send in reviews or printed matter for review.

SAST

GOOD

THE CASE AGAINST COLONEL

SUTTON, by Bruce Cameron, Coward-McMann, Inc., 1961, $4.95, 320 pp.

Lt. Col. David Sutton, a handsome army career officer, aged 43 and a bachelor, is suddenly and mysteriously called on the carpet and told that "It has been alleged, Colonel .Sutton, that you are a sex deviate and a homosexual." The events following this allegation all take place in Paris where the colonel has been picked up at Orly Field and his elopement with the daughter of a Pentagon general abruptly interrupted. To confront and confound Sutton with this allegation, the Army has sent to Paris, Larry Adams, its top "queer chaser" with an uneviable record for getting his man! Adams is cool, calm and collected, ruthless, capable, and extremely ambitious to advance his own career. Sutton, however, possesses similar characteristics, and gives Adams a jolt when he not only denies the charge as preposterous, but also then skillfully maintains his poise throughout the ten-day period during which Allen, revealing little by little the basis of the charges against him, endeavors to force Sutton into a confession. Despite the fact that Sutton displays many masculine qualities not ordinarily attributed to "queers" such as aggressiveness, the

strength of character to deny the charge, and self-assurance, Adams never doubts but that he will be able to break him down and prove his case. To ascertain whether or not Adams is successful in his attempt to "nail another faggot," you must read the book.

Mr. Cameron's style, while literate and readable, is far from being distinguished, and certainly the novel will never acquire status as great literature. The book is, howeverand this is most important—entertaining, interesting, and almost engrossing, and it has something to say. In this novel, Mr. Cameron has developed what seems to be a restrained but positive indictment of the government's attitude toward homosexuals

in governmental or military positions, as well as of moral factors in our society today which make it possible to maintain this attitude. Further, he has presented a scathing indictment of the unethical methods and techniques which Washington sees fit to use in such cases. The most devastating and prevalent form of character assassination in modern timesguilt by association-is dramatically and effectively exposed, and the reader never questions but that the author writes of what he knows and has experienced. From the reviewer's point of view, unfortunately, THE CASE AGAINST COLONEL SUTTON is in many respects a mystery