HARRY BLACK

by David Walker ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1956

This has something of the atmospheric tension of The Storm and the Silence but lacks the poignant humanity of Geordie. The end impression is primarily that of a first rate adventure story, with buildup to a wonderful climactic scene, against the sultry background of heat-drenched India, mountains and jungles, and the pervasive fear of the stalking man-eating tiger. The book is difficult reading; one needs some perspective to sort out the diverse themes and fit them into the pattern. For it is told by direct narrative- by innuendo- by flashback. Harry Black was a war hero; he had a reputation for fearlessness and ingenuity; he had lost a leg but won his freedom in a war prison camp break in which Desmond Tanner had flubbed his part and stayed behind. Tanner nursed fear of his own cowardice, but when they meet again in India the old friendship is reborn. Black has taken on the hunt for the tiger; his scout is Bapu, a strange little man feared by the natives as an embodiment of the tiger himself- and the story of the hunt is told against the background of the past which you get in bits and pieces-counterpointed by the abortive romance between Black and Desmond's wife. Men, particularly those who like huntint stories, will like this.

Pub Date: March 1, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION