FOLLOW ME EVER

The author uses a touching and difficult theme here -- the receiving of the Stigmata by an American soldier in the last war -- with an unusual and oblique treatment. Several people in England with the army come in contact with the mystery of Ellis' ""strangeness"" -- a nurse, a dancer, a young lieutenant, a tight-lipped major, a priest, and the narrator. The two women had seen the ragged wounds, on Ellis' hands, feet and body. Yet no one understood although a few tried desperately to absorb the mystery. It is the cold hatred of the Major which sends Ellis to his death, and the fragrance of the mystery alone remains. Feverish, sensuous, highly concentrated prose, by a poet who has contributed to the better literary magazines. The subject may carry this beyond a special market.