THE NIGHT WINDS

South Africa, and the uncertain climate of raw resentment and restive violence when class and color lines leave their ugly disfiguration- this is a derivative if proficient first novel. There's Ann, of mixed blood, who wants to ""become European"" and leave her brother Sonny and his Kaffir friends far behind her; Franz Keitel, an insurance salesman, the dupe of his own origins which he does not recognize- but others can; Hiram, a financier, who is attracted by Ann's slow, sullen beauty; Marjory, his wife, submerged in alcohol and contemptuous of her husband and herself; etc., etc. The story here reaches its moment of decision and despair at a ball given by the Hirams; Ann's brother and his friends burgle the collection which Keitel- ineffectually- has failed to insure; and Ann is held first by the police, then tracked down by her brother's friends and can find no sanctuary... No Mittee, but the savage, sensuous strains repeat this folk motif.