The Red Carpet
by Marrow, $3.50
Potpourri
Mr. Wickendeu, besides writing an engaging novel, has performed what could be a major service to American letters. He has shown that there is one way (and I suspect one only) of handling the most nauseating of fictional themes — the saga of the young provincial who comes to New York to become a novelist: Don t take the hero’s literary ambitions seriously. Wickenden concentrates on the fact that his would-be Thomas Wolfe falls in love with a wonderful girl who, unfortunately, is married to a wonderful guy. His hero tells all in his sententious correspondence with his home-town sweetheart, and his troubles are rather sad. But somehow The Red Carpet, though it has tragic overtones, remains a charming, thoroughly entertaining comedy.