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X \ [BOOKSflf (make 1 ( A ( HOME m EDITED BY 2332 North Decatur Rd. J. ZUBER Decatur, Georgia A. M.D. G. For the greater glory of God and for the spiritual benefit of authors, publishers, reviewers and readers. THE YOUNG REBEL IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. edited by Carl Bode, Praeger, 1959, 170"pp., $1.50. Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester This is a collection of seven lectures delivered some years back by as many different men at the American Embassy in London. The purpose of the se ries, in bare-faced terms, was to take a step toward undoing the English . prejudice that America is a land of conform- > ing materialists. Seven Ameri can writers supposedly notable for their spurning of material istic values and their non conformity were selected to show the English misconcep tion. The irony of the group is that none but the editor’s (Bode’s on Thoreau) is a clean- cut demonstration of a non- conforming anti - materialist. There seems to have been some hazy inability on the part of whoever chose the erstwhile rebels (besides Thoreau, Whit man, Sinclair Lewis, Scott Fitzgerald, H. L. Mencken, Steinbeck, and Faulkner) to distinguish between immature fend anti-materialism. It is one thing to yearn for the best of all possible worlds, and quite another to shake off the par ticular climate of materialism which has been observed in our culture. It is not striking GENERAL TIRES GENERAL BATTERIES TEXACO PRODUCTS GENERAL TIRE 8 SUPPLY CO. Broad at Twelfth St. AUGUSTA, GA. in most of the “rebels” cited that they had any special con cern with such a shake-off. Though I would readily agree that most men were non conformists, it was only in the cases of Thoreau, Whitman and Mencken that there was any self-assured intentional drive to be so. Lewis and Fitzgerald, on the other hand, were clear ly driven to belong — to be accepted by — a social element they were unsure they deserv ed to be among; such rebel liousness as this type exem plifies is certainly no argument for emancipated non-conform ity. And finally, Steinbeck and Faulkner would seem to be non-conformists purely by ac cident, a comforting fact since non-conformity, taken by it self, is a nebulous, dubiously worthwhile end. Evaluated independently, these lectures are modestly in teresting studies. A stand-out among them is David Daiches’ beautiful treatment of Whit man. But the goal aimed at by the collected whole is wildly missed, a ludicrous illustration of what happens when an ef fort is made to force large complex material to accommo date the limits of a small cle ver idea. PETER CLAVER, by Angel Valtierra, S.J., Newman, 1960, 328 pp., $4.75. Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester St. Peter Claver was born of well-to-do peasant stock in Catalonia, Spain, in 1580. His early life appears to have been a steady preparation for the priesthood. He became a Jesuit in 1604, and went as a mission ary to Cartagena in 1610. He was not ordained a priest un til 1613: But from 1610 until four years prior to his death in 1654 he worked as a mis sionary to the Negroes who throughout this period were being imported in vast num bers into the Spanish settle ments in the Colombian area. Father Claver styled himself “a slave of the slaves,” and the copious testimony that he was Enjoy that NEW FEELING ^ i. BOTTLED UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY BY COCA-COLA BOTTLERS OF GEORGIA WITHAM’S FABRICS CENTER Let us help decorate your home with beautiful Colorama Fabrics, Famous Artloom Carpets, All Wool, Nylon and Acriclan Covers, Slip Covers, Carpets and Valances SAMPLES SHOWN IN YOUR HOME BY APPOINTMENT 2286 Cascade Road, S. W. PL. 3-8312 Atlanta, Ga. OUR LADY OF THE HILLS A Ccitholic camp for bo^s and girls ages 7 to 16. 200 acres, 37 buildings in the Blue Bldg© Mountains. Large modern pool, mountain lake, with all camping activities guided by trained counselors. Ideal accommodations for visiting par ents. Camp provides pick-up service to or from nearest rail, air, bus terminal. A camp for youngsters to grow... spirit ually, healthfully. For literature, write: Father Charles McLaughlin OUR LADY OF THE HILLS CAMP HENDEBSOMViUE, NORTH CAROLINA MHECnONS ON ItfAf'INv# -■ ' . v'.- , . GASJ8R Ff&DING *■ ■< e: ...... ' wwwm bamm 'lva WHV NO SATIRE? by Henry * awn, $J, $hm S?£r<e« FHL WAKf bv mmm rnma by Maws Gallant THE CRITIC, a Catholic review of Books and the I Arts, The Thomas More Association, 210 West Madison Street, Chicago 6, $3.50 per year. Reviewed by Flannery O'Connor Since its beginning, the magazine of the Thomas More Association has gone through a series of changes which, it is to be hoped, parallel the American Catholic’s attitude toward books and the arts. The magazine began in 1942 as Books on Trial, a name which reflected the Catholic preoccupation for grading and judging books in accordance with their likelihood of dealing blows to the reader’s Faith. Books on Trial offered eleven possible verdicts on the books reviewed; the legal atmosphere was thick. The magazine eventually dropped the verdicts and then dropped the name. It is now called The Critic, A Catholic Review of Books and the Arts. There is in the designation, Catholic Review of Books and the Arts, the implied assumption that there is a brand of criticism special to Catholics rather than that any good criticism will reflect a Catholic view of reality. The ghost of Books on Trial is hard to lay. The Critic has in each issue three or four articles on cultural subjects and about fifty short reviews of current books, fiction and non-fiction. The articles on music and the arts are usually better than the articles on literature, which too frequently are about minor Catholic liturgy figures, or when about non-Catholic writers tend to show that these are Catholic in spite of themselves and there fore acceptable. The reviews of books on social thought, history and religion are better than the fiction reviews. Fiction is considered by most Catholic readers to be a waste of time, and The Critic, which recently began pub lishing a story or two an issue, has taken a step which may prove dangerous to its circulation. Already letters have appeared in the letters column expressing dis pleasure that this space should be, in effect, wasted. This may well be true since one feels that the fiction which the majority of Catholics will put up with will be, while not commercial fiction, still an innocuous variety that could as well be done without. The Critic also oc casionally devotes space to poetry and recently published a large selection of the verse of living American Catholic poets. The poetry will probably be tolerated, though not read, and the fiction read but not tolerated. The metamorphosis of The Critic, however, is not yet complete. Beginning in the fall the magazine will publish nine or ten articles in each issue, there will be fewer but longer and more thorough reviews, and the subtitle will be changed from “A Catholic Review of Books and the Arts” to “A Magazine of Christian Culture.” All these changes promise a better magazine, one which will be less parochial and which will lead as well as reflect the American Catholic’s growing appetite for the arts. The Critic is well worth the price of a subscription. literally this is incontroverti ble. Father Valtierra, a Colom bian himself, has written a conscientiously detailed work which obviously involved a great labor in research. He has made a commendable attempt to weed out or to discount the many pious fabrications that have sprung up in association with Claver. The form of this biography is roughly chrono logical, though after he has brought Claver to his death, Valtierra adds a number of specialized chapters in which he discusses Claver as a psy chological type, his personal relations with others, etc. Unfortunately, there does not appear to have been enough direct information available to give these discussions the de cisive clarity Father Valtierra apparently aimed toward. There are a number of general redundancies in the work which become tedious, but for those interested particularly in Peter Claver this will be a welcome treatment. STOP PUSHING, Dan Herr, Hanover House, New York, 192 pp., $3.50. Reviewed by Flannery O'Connor Mr. Dan Herr’s chief talent is for the pursuit and exposure of idiotic printed matter. He is at his best when bringing to public attention the advertis ing in the Catholic press (al though this entails no more than copying it out word for word) or when he sets up a mirror before the lady’s mag azines, the horror of which is that it is in no measure a dis torting mirror. When he con fines himself to such public services, Mr. Herr is at least endurable, sometimes enjoy able, and always valuable. Columnists in general, how ever, and those with preten sions to humor in particular, would be well advised to let the impact of their talents come to the public in well- regulated dribbles, to scatter rather than to collect their pieces. Embedded in the gen eral earnestness of The Cri tic. These columns manage to thrust themselves forward with a certain vitriolic verve, which when collected, by some ob scure law of accumulation, be comes bluster. The humorist cannot allow himself to see two sides of any question un less he is a very complicated humorist. Mr. Herr does not sport an ounce of complica tion and he depends for his ef fects 95% of the time on ex aggeration alone. While his opinions are in general sound —witness his disaffection for the teen-ager—there is a same ness about their presentation that makes it advisable to let a long period of time elapse between reading one piece and the next; anytime from two months to a year. LEE'S LAST CAMPAIGN, by Clifford Dowdey, Little, Brown & Co., 1960, 415 pp., maps, $6.00. Reviewed by Msgr. George J. Flanigen This hook’s subtitle is “The Story of Lee and his Men against Grant — 1864” but ac tually it covers only the six v/eeks of Lee’s last maneuver from the Wilderness to Peters burg, the penultimate struggle of the Confederacy. But read ers who expect a heavy, de tailed, dry-as-dust account of the military maneuvers will b e pleasantly disappointed. Clifford Dowdey, an outstand ing writer on the Confederacy, has brought the novelist’s in terpretive mind to his task and the volume is an intensely human, readable story. With only the ghost of the once great Army of Northern Virginia, Lee is caught be tween the overwhelming might of the enemy and the crippling restrictions of his own govern ment. He was therefore fight ing a war on two fronts: Grant before him and Davis in his rear. For the student of the Civil War, Lee's Last Cam paign offers new appraisals and fresh interpretations; for the general reader it is a good introduction to the generals and other individuals who composed the fighting force of the Lost Cause. APOSTLE IN A TOP HAT, by James Patrick Derum, Doubleday, 1960, 240 pp., $3.95. Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester Called by its author a “nov elized biography,” this book is about Frederic Ozanam, an up- perclass Frenchman who founded the Society of St. Vin cent de Paul. The son of a Lyons physician, Ozanam was a brilliant student who origi nally went into law, though when still in his twenties he abandoned it to become a Sorbonne professor of literal ture. The drama of his life lay in his literary efforts to dispel the devastating effects of the Enlightenment on French Catholic culture, his fight to give attention to the poor, and, in the last eight years of his life (he died when only forty), his struggle against tubercu losis. He appears never to have been affected by any very great inner tensions, and, un fortunately for the tempo of Mr. Derum’s book, even his objective battles were too mo notonously successful to pro vide lively reading. At one point in his life, his sympathy for the economic plight of the lower classes caused him to range himself on the side of revolutionists against the kingship of Louis Philippe. On this one occasion he stood in the truly dramatic position of being an ardent Catholic es pousing a cause which most influential French Catholics regarded as anathema. In the hands of some writers this one phase of Ozanam’s life might easily have been turned into fine reading, but either Oza nam’s action was abortive or Mr. Derum failed badly in see ing his one opportunity to give his hero more than puppet sta ture. The book as a whole is a dull gray work, badly imped ed by wooden speeches and sentiments which, however good, are wearisomely trite. THE THEOLOGY OF SAL VATION, by Maurice Emin- yan, S.J., Daughters of St. Paul, 233 pp., cloth $4.00, pa per, $3.00. Reviewed by W. L. Schmidt Pagans and infidels existed by the millions before Christ, and by the hundreds of mil lions since. They never heard of the Messiah. Millions even today have not heard about Christ. Since Christ died for the salvation of all men, how were they, and how are they now saved not knowing Him? This question has been probed by theologians of the Church for 1900 years. St. Paul write that, since the beginning, God’s invisible at tributes were plainly observ able through created things. Based on this, the early fa thers taught there was no ex cuse for the loss of anyone’s soul. Since the time of Christ it has been taught, too, that baptism is necessary for sal vation. Then, what about those who haven’t been baptized? Again, teaching came forward that one can have the desire for baptism in case of impossi bility or invincible ignorance. The past two decades, par ticularly since the encyclical, “Mystici Corporis” of Pius XII, have brought out much lit erature and discussion on the subject of salvation among non-believers, or infidels. Fa ther Eminyan limits his study of the problem to the writings of this period. Rather than drawing definitive conclus ions, he presents a synthesis of the writings by eminent scholars on the subject. Of particular interest, and very relevant to- the subject, is Father Eminyan’s examina tion of what happens at the moment of death. When bodily function are at their most in active state, the soul is at that moment most fee to act. And it passes with all the free will it has on all its actions during life, and freely leaves the body. This book is much like the book of the scientist who com piles all known facts about a definite scientific subject. It is a happy reminder that the Church also has its spiritual “scientists” and investigators. It is constantly seeking an swers to questions, and grow ing with knowledge. The Theology of Salvaiion is well documented. It is in teresting and fascinating read ing. The serious layman and student of Catholic teachings and investigatory studies will find it well worth the effort in thought required to read it. Keep your foot off the accel erator and poised on the brake pedal as you approach all in tersections, says the Allstate Safety Crusade. Being prepar ed and able to stop will avoid most accidents. THE BULLETIN, June 10, 1961—PAGE 7 For The Finest In Non-Perishable Fancy Food Gift Baskets SNACK ’N SHOP Variety of Wonderful Appetizing Snacks Served AT OUR SNACK BAR OPEN TIL 7 P.M. North Decatur Plaza ME. 6-4622 Decatur, Ga. D’YOUVILLE ACADEMY A Girls' Country Day School 4146 CHAMBLEE-DUNWOODY ROAD CHAMBLEE GL. 7-3530 D’Youville Academy is a four-year college prepara tory private high school for girls, under the direction of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. Though the Academy is basically College Preparatory, it endeavors to supply a basic general curriculum suited to individual abilities and capacities. Special arrangements may be made for applicants for the 9th, 10th, 11th grades. For Registration and Further Information Call Sister Mary Raphael, Principal, GL. 7-3530 You are cordially invited to see... Cascade Hill CASCADE ROAD AT UTOY SPRINGS ROAD, S.W. the beautiful new southwest Atlanta mortuary of open for public visitation June nth through i8th 4 to 9 p.m. come, and bring the family CASCADE HILL... serving southwest Atlanta and the surrounding territory from Cascade Road at Utoy Springs Road, S.W. SPRING HILL...continuing to serve at 1020 Spring Street, N.W. OGLETHORPE HILL...serving northern Atlanta and the surrounding territory from 4550 Peachtree Road, N.E. The Ideal for Community Service at Moderate Cost