THE ROYAL WAY

A tantalizingly exciting story of two white men and their adventures in the Siamese jungle, both in search of forbidden things, one of a man considered by the officials better lost, the other of carvings on deserted and forgotten temples which once dotted the ""royal way"". They find what they seek. They find too the murky depths of each other's natures. The adventures come to a climax when they discover the lost man, a blind slave of a hostile tribe, and find themselves facing a similar fate, which they avoid only to stumble on -- what? The story ends on an unfinished note. A much better integrated book than Man's Fate which won the Goncourt Prize, but still lacking in clarity and incisiveness. Man's market -- adventure in the tropics, lusty passions, primitive motives.