THE SOUND OF AN AMERICAN

Tense reading, for a hard, holding love story set against the suddenly shifting pre-war and war scene of Europe. It is scheduled to get the publisher's biggest ""all out"" of any novel they have ever published; they see it as another candidate for Farewell to Arms or This Above All market. It is good reading, but -- to our way of thinking -- not a book of such permanent value as either of them. The story of an American, Abner Coe, Journalist, music critic, something of a dilettante, indifferent until he falls in love with Roxy, who is studying in France, where they meet. On a technicality, he is forced to fight for France; he sees the sellout of the soldiers by the officers, the gutting of the country by a Fascist minority; he is wounded -- and jumps the hospital to get back to Roxy, whom he finds married to Jon. Jon has joined the Fascist group, and Roxy leaves him for Abner. Jon helps them escape, is caught in so doing, is sentenced to be shot as a hostage, and -- too late -- Roxy realizes that it is Jon she loves, and joins him to die. His experience has taught Abner the validity of the fight and he returns to America to join up, in good faith. Lean, bitter, tough style for a tightly emotional story, which has the flavor of autobiography. Public libraries may find it questionable for their conservatives....Big publisher backing.