FUEL FOR THE FLAME

Another Island in the Sun- Karak in the China Seas- provides an expansive entertainment- patterned after the earlier book, Waugh's most successful. Once again there are the lush tropical tableaus, the cosmopolitan colony life from the palace to the Residency to the club, the horseraces- and balls, along with a dramatis personae of twenty odd characters providing an almost equal number of romantic situations. Karak itself, valuable in oil and rubber, is of some concern to the British who suspect Communist infiltration. Alternating around a Communist (which proves to be Nationalist) attempt to stage a demonstration by shooting the English bride of heir-to-the-throne, Prince Rhya, are--- Studholme, a political agent, quietly vigilant; his daughter, Lila (of whom he should be more watchful) and her affair with mixed-blooded Angus Macartney; Charles Keable, general manager of the oil installation, his young second wife, and his daughter, Shelagh; Shelagh's romance with the A.D.C.- one of the few to conclude successfully; Basil Hallett, Keable's assistant, who will never amount to much and whose indebtedness at the races makes him vulnerable to the insidious blackmail of certain natives; the Sinclairs- who split up; the Pawlings- who make up after their marriage almost dissolves..... All in all, it is a leisurely, luxuriant, superficial but superficially cosmetic novel with the presumed popular attractions of the earlier book, designed for and directed toward just that audience.