An interesting, unified collection, in spare but revealing prose, of six stories of post-war France, with emphasis on the Basque country. They disclose echoes of the fighting as conflicts in the mind are reflected in physical outbreak, as in segments of lives the spirit of France appears. An old maid, strong in her faith, goes into a mine-laid cemetery and proves that doubts of the mind can be exploded, too; two GI's in a French class in Paris take vital interest in elections; an arrogant soldier is defeated by his own fears; an awkward American shows more sensitivity than his smarter companions; a boy from the US is confounded by difference in time in a Basque village; the false calm of the staff in a pshchoneurotic hospital is disrupted; an American falling in love with a French girl is thwarted by the ghosts of the Cote Basque. Worth reading -- both for stories and style.