PRIVATE

by Frank D. Gilroy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1970

It is one of the more curious contradictions of modern times that while wider and wider circles of non-participants are ever better informed of the daily increments of history, for the participants themselves events remain ill-defined, tentative, subjective. This private interior of history is the subject of Gilroy's reminiscence of his European duty during World War II, and while it adds nothing new to the literature of that experience it cuts clean and quick to the emotional essentials--horror, nostalgia, disbelief. Gusting, flash-illuminated impressions trace a familiar hero--a New Yorker, sickly, musical, trusting he will somehow be exempt--through the initiations of blood and sex: the final question, ""How has it changed you?"" stands apparently, and understandably, unresolved yet twenty-five years later. Mr. Gilroy will be remembered for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Subject Was Roses.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION