The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 129

BOOK NEWS THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. SUNDAY, JUNE 6. 1965 a wmmmmvfM Oh Dad, Poor Dad! He's Lost in N. Y. PAGE IV-' v-j'V'V A Doomed Dynasty Fall of the Romanovs I As Duchess Saw Its By David Appel Inquirer Book Editor ABIT of American folklore dialogue, a conversation on a country road, prepares us for "You Can't Get There From Here" (Random House.

242 pages. new novel by Earl Hamner, whose "Spencer's Mountain" gained a warm reception three years ago. The exchange runs like this: STRANGER: Pardon me, oldtimer, but I'm lost. Where does this road go? NATIVE: It don't go nowhere. It always stays right there where it is.

THE LAST GRAND DUCHESS. By Ian Vorros. $3 95 By Joseph Benham Ever since the July night in 1918 when a savage band of Bolsheviks shot and bayoneted the Czar of All the Eus-sias and his wife and children, authors have found a ready market for books about the STRANGER: Then could you tell me the way to the nearest town? NATIVE: I could, but it won't do you no good. STRANGER: Why not? NATIVE: You can't get there from here. STRANGER: You know what you are? You're ignorant! NATIVE: Maybe, but I ain't lost.

Neither is.Wes Scott, 16-year-old narrator of this very special story, lost. He knows his way around. doomed Romanovs and the revolution that toppled their entire empire. This 260-page book, baed largely on conversations with the Czar's sUter, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrova, slunild prove a valuable addition to the lore on the Romanovs, despise some defects. The grand duchess, in agreeing to allow Vorres to write her memoirs, apparently decided to use the book as a means of setting the record straight on a good many things "Who stole the people's money?" 'Twas im, cries each member of the weed Ring, his neiahbor, out the finger lands on Boss Tweed himself in this famous Thomas Host mg cartoon.

Jhe illustration appears in "Boss Tweed's Hew York," by Seymour Mancjelbaum, to be published June 9 by John Wiley Son. David Appel When we catch ud to concerned with the Russian family, and she makes interesting points. him on a Saturday morning in early September Wes, re- JQtterS of QfQQf ComDOSST cently returned from a summer's vacation spent with his Vivid Story royal some recollections of (lie fam ily life of the Romanovs from grandparents in the Blue Ridge country of Virginia, is rushing around Manhattan. He is searching for his father, Joe, fired from his radio writing job, on the town, scattering good cheer derived from his bundle of severance pay. Some Scliocnber Overtones 0 Paris' Liberation 309 Oddballs and a Dream of Utopia LETTERS.

By Arnold Schoenberg. Edited by Erwin Stein. (St. Martin's Press. $3.75) pp.

IS PAltlS BURNING? Ry Larry Collins and Dominque Lapierre. (Simon Schuster. $6.95.) By Alan Pryce-Jones TheEnglish-speaking world owes a great debt to Eithne Wilklns and Ernst Kaiser. Some years ago they launched, for practical purposes, the work of Robert Musil, now generally accepted as a novelist of the first order. And for many years they have quietly been turning out impeccable translations from the Ger Complete with oddball characters and hilarious (and some sad) escapades, "You Can't Get There From Here" follows Wes, East Side and West Side, while unfolding the saga of Joe, eccentric but lovable, gentle fellow who can quote the poetry of Scott Fitzgerald, who can write a script for a Macy parade, who loves people, and who cherishes the dream of a Utopia called Shy Beaver where there is no cruelty, poverty or pain.

Time and again, Joe Scott has sworn that if he ever locates Shy Beaver he'll paint the directions on the George Washington Bridge which should give you a clue on how this romp ends. There was a time when Joe Scott was much sought after. That was in the halcyon days of radio, the days of Fred Allen, Senator Claghorn, Titus Moody, the Green Hornet, Ma Perkins and the First Nighter. But with TV, Joe's talent finds no takers. Subway Car-Load of Characters Now Joe's son Wei, in whose eyes Joe is still the greatest script writer of them all, is searching for his errant father in all his haunts in their old apartment in Greenwich Village, in Radio City, in Harlem, on Times An illustration by Rita Parsons from "The Homecoming," by arlen a Frick.

(David McKay Co.) Hook Reviews In Brief THE AFRICAN NETTLE: DILEMMAS OF AN EMERGING CONTINENT. Edited by Frank S. Meyer (John Day, pages, $51. In one of the essays in this most timely book, Elspeth Huxley, an acknowledged authority on Africa, makes two important observations. One is that the newly independent states are ganging up on Portugal and South Africa, as well as white-controlled Southern Rhodesia, determined to drive them from the continent, thus ending all colonialism.

Tha second is that the present nationalist rulers are equally determined "to set up in perpetuity the single-party state." Necessary reading for students of foreign affairs. THE TREE OF DREAMS AND OTHER STORIES'. By Mika Waltari. (Tutnam. 251 pages, $1.95.) This collection of four novellas provides a new opportunity to examine the real but circumscribed talent of the controversial Finn, Mika Waltari.

He is first of all the master of the well-built tale. His stories could serve as models in a creative writing class. Title story tells of a compulsive love affair in which the narrator is haunted 2 by the memory of his long- dead sweetheart with whom he half identifies his present mistress. THE RIGHT ANGLES: HOW TO DO SUCCESSFUL PUBLICITY. By Babette Hall (Ives Washburn, 160 pages, $3 95).

the simple habits of her father to the lavish social whirl which her mother loved give a vivid insight into the complexities of (he dynasty which ruled Russia for three hundred years. She also has some sharp observations about Russian society and the ways in which its decadence caused the nation's people to lose much of the love and trust that they once reposed in their rulers. In this regard, her own relatives come in for some of the heavi est criticism. Two legends which she is particularly intent on wiping out are the reputed influence of Rasputin over the Czar and the alleged survival of Grand Duchess Anastasia, one of the Czar's three daughters. Of her meeting with Anna Anderson, perhaps the most famous of the women who have claimed to be the Grand Ductless Anastasia, Grand Duchess Olga recalled, "I had left Denmark (her first home in exile) with something of a hope in my heart.

I left Berlin with all hope extinguished." Rasputin, the grand duchess says, "was neither saint nor devil he remained exactly what he was a peasant with a profound faith in God and a gift of healing." The principal virtues of the book are the aforementioned glimpses into the personal lives of the Romanovs, the views of the grand duchess on some of the legends which developed before and after the Ekaterinberg massacre and the picture of Grand Duchess Olga herself. The defects are the rather large number of Vorres' personal opinions which he has put into the book along with the words of Grand Duchess Olga, and the author's assumption that every reader is as familiar with European history particularly the portion concerned with Russian royalty and the 1917 revolution as he obviously is. The fact that Paris was freed before it could become a smouldering pile of rubble in the late summer of 19U reMilted from such an incredible series of flukey breaks, hair-breadth adventures and misadventures, bluffs, gambles and near-miracles that this nerve-popping chronicle of the city's liberation makes spy fiction leem like a cold cup of tea. The Allies were straining all resources of men and supplies especially gasoline to chase the Germans toward the Rhine, and wanted to bypass the city. Hitler shrieked at his generals to hold Paris or leave it in ruins.

De Gaulle was determined to enter the city first and set up his own political regime, even at the risk of breaking up the Allied command. The Parisian Communists wanted to stir up a revolt that would leave their own brand of political chaos, even if it cost 200,000 lives. The authors tell their story entirely through individuals, on a day-to-day and hour-by-hour basis, as though they were flipping a camera eye from one scene to another mostly in close-up. The result is a racy, at times bewildering, but always vivid thriller. Among the principal participants are a wavering German general who commanded the occupation forces; an obscure Resistance figure who at the very last hour convinced Eisenhower to change his mind; the Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, who rescued several thousand political prisoners from massacre and Done up in her best hat, "Mrs.

'Arris Goes to Parliament" (Doubleday. Paul Gallico's new book will be out June 18. Satirist's Last Stories Square, in the delegates lounge at the Ur.ited Nations, in a costly suite at the Plaza. Most of the time, Wes is a few minutes too late. And then comes that cliff-hanging climax.

On his chase around Manhattan Wes encounters a subway car load of curiosities: Miss Gregory, who believes that New York's pigeons are really deceased residents who cannot leave their beloved city, and who enlists the unsuspecting Wes in her shoplifting activities: Mavis Broadhurst, ex-actress, whose purse Wes rescues from a snatcher: I hS" 4 I Oil man, of which this edition of Schoenberg's letters is only the latest. If the letters were rigidly confined to the technics of music, they would hardly deserve notice here. Schoenberg was, if not the greatest, perhaps the most interesting composer of the early 20th century. But he was also a highly extraordinary man. And fortunately his letters reflect this fact.

Music is their theme. But the embroideries spun around it make this book one of great psychological interest. A key to his character is contained in a letter to the conductor, Joseph Stransky. "1 often give orders, hut never take them; and I make a special point of never doing business: not merely because I dread everything connected with it, but because nothing brings people so close together as business. My own taste, however, is for keeping my distance." A lifetime of failure from the worldly point of view embittered him (as late as 1945, aged 70, as an exile from Nazi Germany in the United States he was refused a Guggenheim Award, albeit the outstanding composer then alive in this country).

He opposed a face of granite to those who, he considered, deprived him of the right to be heard, whether they were his native Viennese or his adopted Californians. At the same time he could be delightfully outgoing when he chose. And though these letters barely touch on the fact he excelled at such unexpected skills as tennis, playing Viennese waltzes on the piano, and scoring dozens of light operas in order to turn an honest penny. A more austere musical highbrow never lived. Yet his contacts with some of the most eminent people of his time Mahler, Alban Berg, Webern (both the last of his pupils), Kandinsky, Kokoschka, Thomas Mann show him well able to hold his own in other fields than musicology.

I could wish there was some echo in these pages of the strong mystical streak in him which made some of his friends credit him with magical powers. As it is, he ranks among the owners of an inconvenient genius. tannery OTonnor Provides Sharp Focus on Soiilkni Life Earl Hamner, Jr. EVERY THING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE. By Flannery O'Connor.

(Farrar, Straus. $4.95.) By Miles A. Smith Miss O'Connor's talent was focused on a comparatively narrow aspect of life, but its focus was microscopically sharp and clear. This book of nine stories was her last effort before she died in Quiet Credo later negotiated a cease-which gave the city's lists the time they desperate of Living ly needed; do Gaulle himself; and a double agent in the German headquarters. War's fears, ironies, braveries, tragedies, chaos and stubborn hope are all portrayed in this book's graphically personalized, high-speed narrative of a wild chapter of history.

MILES A. SMITH. Prudence Brooks, ex-flame of Joe's, "giddy and flighty-talking," who insists on a hansom cab trip to the hospital she has fled because of interns with cold hands; Moses Miles, drummer at a Times Square jazz spot, for whom music is a kind of religious experience. Perfumed Sawdust for Gardeners Then there are other characters like Sugar, the 11-year-old rabbit who came for Easter and stayed; Greta, the black cocker spaniel, and a pair of ruby-throated hummingbirds. These are among the pets of Meredith, Wes' stepmother, patient and enterprising, who adds to the family income by selling, via mail order, perfumed sawdust for discriminating gardeners.

There is a delightful mixture here of backwoodsy humor and big-city sophistication. Hamner writes with warmth and his people, no matter how oddball, are all recognizable. If, like Joe and Wes Scott, you like people, you'll njoy all this. Civil War Volume Selected by Club COUNTRYMAN: A Summary of Belief. By Hal Borland.

(Lippincott. $3.50. In a lifetime of drawing strength, patience, solace and inspiration from the changing, challenging wonders of the land, the author has distilled his own philosophy of living. It is a quiet, reflective For those readers of Sloan Wilson and the other 132 authors who have put down the public relations business, this book would be a disappointment. In this publicity primer, Babette Hall tells how to handle routine tasks and the many other basics of publicity procedures.

Obviously, the author, a publicity pro, knows the right angles. A SENSE OF LIFE. By An-toine de Saint-Exupery (Funk Wagnalls, 231 pages, $o). The basis for part of An-tojne de Saint-Exupery's noted "Wind, Sand and Stars," re- flections of a French aviator-philosopher, is contained ia these beautifully-written essays and other short pieces, published posthumously. Saint-Exupery failed to return from a mission against the Germans in 1943.

PIONEERS AND CARETAKERS, a study of nine American women novelists. Rural Home, "summary of belief," touched ith humility and faith. For British. Style i veryone wno writhes under 1964. She was a Southern writer, and once said that "it does seem evident that the Southern writer is particularly adept at recognizing the grotesque; and to recognize the grotesque, you have to have some notion of what is not grotesque and why." She wrote on regional themes, and although some of her characters were white and some were black, it was only part of the time that race was a factor in her stories.

She was concerned with death, and particularly with the deaths of pitiable people. She valued humor, but it was a scalding type of satire that she used. If Miss O'Connor cast a jaundiced eye on her females, she displayed an even nastier attitude toward the other sex. She could write vividly. But she turned her sharp focus too often into the biological world where the females devour the males.

the neurotic pressures of the city and supposedly civilized patterns, reading his gentle colloquies with nature is like a restorative warming at the hearthside. Borland has been writing essays and novels about the outdoors for many years. Here he has summed up his personal credo. His procedure is to record the months of the year at his country place in the Berkshire hills; in each month he finds new lessons and renewed discoveries of age-old verities. This list is compiled from reports supplied to The Inquirer by the following bookshops: Frigate, Gim-bels, Lits, Mid-City, Reilly, Se ssler, Strawbridge Clothier, Wanamaker, Whitman and Womrath, Philadelphia; Greenwood, Wilmington.

FICTION The Ambassador. West Up the Down Staircase. Kaufman The Source. Michener The Flight of the Falcon. Du Maurier A Pillar of Iron.

Caldwell Don't Stop the Carnival. Wouk Hotel. Hailcy Herzog. Bellow Night at Camp David. Knebel The Man.

Wallace Markings. Hammarskjold The Oxford History of the American People. Morison My Shadow Ran Fast. Sands Journal of a Soul. Pope John XXIII The Founding Father.

How to Be a Jewish Mother. Greenberg Fred Allen's Letters. McCarthy By Louis Auchincloss. (U. of Minnesota Press.

$4.95.) The nine are Sarah Orne Jewett, Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Willa Gather. Elizabeth Maddox Roberts, Kather-ine Anne Porter, Jean Stafford, Carson McCullers and Mary McCarthy. THE HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY. By Nan Fairbrother. (Knopf.

$5.95.) Those inveterate gardeners and country dwellers, the English perhaps for the simple reason that they have been at it so long maintain a high level of literate comment on the joys of escaping from the city into the greenside. Few Americans the late Richardson Wright was one-can equal their sensitive explorations of the simple hearthside life, and Miss Fair-brother follows well in the English tradition. In two her story is a little different from many of the English idylls. She retained a love for London, and was glad to get into the city's rhythm during the winter. And Auld Ballads From Scotland LIVING WITH BALLADS.

By Willa Muir. (Oxford University Press. 260 pages. $5.75.) "Wad ye like to hear an auld sang?" said an Aberdeenshire plough man to Willa Muir, when she was a young girl spending a summer holiday at a cottage on the northeast of Scotland. And he began, slowly, rhythmically, singing the story of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship," a song that "had been passed on to him by other ploughmen, who had been receiving it for many generations from their forebears." The year was 1909, and this was Willa Muir's first meeting with a ballad.

Mrs. Muir's book is a most appealing one, combining deep psychological insights with a "Never Call Retreat," final volume of the three-book narrative, "The Centennial History of the Civil War" on which Bruce Catton and a research staff headed by E. B. Long have been at work since 1955, will be the August selection of the Book of the Month Club. Period covered Is from Gettysburg to Appomattox.

Two previous volumes in the "Centennial History," "The Coming Fury" in 1961 and "Terrible Swift Sword" In 1963, were Book of the Month selections. Catton's "A Stillness at Appomattox," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954, and "This Hallowed Ground" (1956) were also distributed by the club. Researches into Ghostly Capers Ghost stories your dish? Watch for "Ghosts I've Met," by Hans Holzer, which Bobbs Merrill will publish on June 30. Holzer, author of a previous ghostly item called "Ghost Hunter." is a noted parapsychologist who investigated about 250 ghost reports and used more than 50 in his new book, in which he tells of his researches in haunted houses in the United States, the British Isles and Europe. Holzer goes wherever there are reports of ghosts or poltergeists to a stretch of railroad track in North Caro And now the author of HAWAII brings to life the unsurpassed drama of the Holy Land from earliest times Skillful Story Of N.Y.

Politics THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK. Ey Laurence Barrett. (Doubleday. 2S2 pages, $4.95.) Laurence Barrett covered City Hall five years for the New York Herald Tribune and wrote a weekly column, City Hall Beat. His novel is a skillful rendering of the dilemmas confronting the Nation's largest and most snsrled up city.

to modern 05 r.Q at instead of describing the rejuvenation of an ancient cottage, she relates the story of how a brand new house was ones conceived and built. Sockito-e RANDOM KOUiE Longford Sitwell Barzini Queen Victoria. Taken Care Of. Tea Italians, lina, a manor house in Great Britain, an eighteenth century love for the people and the Connecticut farmhouse, a strip-tea night club in London, songs of her country II II.