THE UNDERGROUND CITY

by H. L. Humes ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A great amorphous novel, this, in which a newcomer to the field of fiction attempts too much, and achieves a rather confused melodrama with political implications. There's the making of three books here:- one, the story of the baffling resistance forces in southern France, when friend scarcely knew friend from enemy, when the De Gaullists and the Communists worked often at odds, when help from the English, from the Americans ended in supplying the wherewithal for civil warfare; two, the story of the Dujardin affair, built up by the Communists after the war's end to augment anti-American feeling, and to involve in suspicion some against whom they wanted to take action; three, the story of Stone, former American O.S.S., whose first hand witness against Dujardin made him a target for suspicion, a subject of investigation in Washington, and a man no longer able to fill a job anywhere- a victim of his own earnest desire to serve. The author falls of his own weight of material into confusions that baffle the reader. He drags too many polemics into his dialogue, turns what might have been straight adventure with a cynical commentary on the wages of valour into now a defense, now an attack, on attitudes engendered by the war. At times it makes exciting reading, but the finale leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and a sense of excess of matter smothering what there is of distinction in the manner.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 081297848X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: FICTION