Books the Editors Like
FICTION
Faraway
BY ANDRÉ DHÔTEL (SIMON & SCHUSTER, $3.50)
Despite a bow to reality, this is essentially a fairy tale, with all the delightful improbability and exuberant disregard for the commonplace proper to the genre.
Thalia
BY FRANCES FAVIELL (FARRAR, STRAUS & CUDAHY, $3.50)
Two kinds of young love portrayed through the interlocking actions of two English girls at a Breton resort. Brisk, deft writing on a theme that might easily have turned mawkish.
The World of John McNulty
BY JOHN McNULTY (DOUBLEDAY, $4.50)
With microscopic vision and a hi-fi ear, McNulty chronicled the minor oddities of life, mostly along Third Avenue, New York. Not a collection to read straight through, but fine in small doses. Beguiling introduction by James Thurber.
The Scorpion Field
BY J. L. NUSSER (APPLETON-CENTURY-CROFTS, $3.50)
Tartly satirical, Mr. Nusser’s first novel makes a juvenile love affair the stick with which to lambaste social and domestic hypocrisy.
VARIOUS JOURNEYS
Athenian Adventure
BY C. P. LEE (KNOPF, $4.00)
Refusing to rummage in the past (“No unravish’d bride of quietness has been startled by my gaze”), Mr. Lee has a glorious time overhauling modern Athens, and so will his readers.
Bedouin Doctor
BY HERBERT PRITZKE (DUTTON, $3.95)
On the run from a British POW camp, Dr. Pritzke fell in with some Arabs and became, to his own surprise, a slave trader, hashish smuggler, and soldier of fortune. Both the story and the style recall P. C. Wren.
South from Granada
BY GERALD BRENAN (FARRAR, STRAUS & CUDAHY, $4.00)
A long resident in and lover of Spain, Mr. Brenan records life in the Spanish countryside with sympathy, humor, and a fine gift of description.
Kagchenjunga
BY CHARLES EVANS (DUTTON, $5.95)
This account of the first successful ascent of a mean mountain is clear, cheerful, businesslike, and primarily for readers who cannot resist the high snows.