ing time with Peter-those walks in the park of his, those visits to the club, those visits to his mother. But the girl can only imagine Derek interested in other women, and she fastens her jealousy upon Marie, Peter's smart, well preserved mother. She is slow in comprehending homosexuality as a fact and slower still in grasping that her husband is, as she so ingratiatingly puts it, "a fairy."

The episodes of which the book is built are fragmentary. The girl's imaginings are prone to confuse for the reader the actuality of some of them. One, at least, is more than a little "sick" in the latest sense of that word-a scene at a butcher's counter. The only set piece in the book is late in coming and probably intended as climactic a party at Marie's, at which a number of faggots in drag appear. A pair of lesbians, Louise and Blessed, one extremely chic, the other alcoholic, are well if sketchily drawn. Derek, at some time during the proceedings, puts on woman's make up; the description of him thus, seen through the eyes of his young wife, is good. After the party, Derek and Sigourney go home. At last fully aware of his homosexuality, she shoots him. Or does she only imagine this? The ambiguity here is formidable, but the event seems improbable, considering the weight and drift of the previous pages.

The theme of the innocent girl marrying the homosexual is not new; it has cropped up half a dozen times. in recent fiction and drama. Miss Hutchins has treated it freshly if not substantially. But it seems doubtful that, if you are not shocked by the simple fact of the existence of homosexuality, you will find the reading of it worth while. It is fifty thousand words long and would have been far better at five thousand.

James Colton

MAN ON FIRE by LeGette Blythe, Funk & Wagnalls, 1964, $4.95, 376 pp.

This "novel of the life of St. Paul" is a disappointment. Homosexuals have always been keenly interested in Paul because of the belief that he contributed to Christianity's unrealistic attitude toward sex and especially homosexuality. This reviewer had hoped that a reading of Man on Fire might provide some understanding of Paul not found in the Bible, despite the latter's complete and dramatic description of the acts of Paul and the early Christians. Mr. Blythe does not give a very moving picture of Paul. Nor does he ever share Paul's thinking and feeling with the reader. The only glimpse we get into Mr. Blythe's Paul is in Paul's private prayers to the Lord. And these prayers are presented in biblical expression quite jarringly in contrast to the colloquial language of the rest of the novel. Plainly, Mr. Blythe has padded a skeletal life of Paul with a trite love story-a story in which the hero plays second fiddle to a love affair between a young Roman soldier and the wife of Pontius Pilate. Man on Fire is not so hot.

W. E. G.

WANTED: Man, between 3050 who loves animals to assist in care of 14 dogs and estate in Italy. Must be well educated and stable, seeking permanent position. Write for details; submit photo with letter.

Castel St. Antonio, Lazise sul Garda, Verona, Italy.

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