STRANGERS IN THE LAND

Not just another book on Nazi Germany, this is at once considerably more and less. It is a picture of the bottom dropping out in 1932, reflected in the moneyed aristocracy and near-aristocracy of Munich, a circle of horsemen, sophisticates, living loosely but well. There is a good deal of Hemingway's Sun Also Rises in the manner, a circle living at razor's edge, courage alternating with dissipation. The central figure is Pont, a Jewish corporation lawyer, suave, sensitive, finished, and a German more than a Jew. He falls in love with Frances, a brittle demi-mondaine who for once is held by Pont. And the instability of their relationship is matched by that of the times, the growing tension as all know that Hitler will soon strike, and Pont warned time and again to leave Germany which he cannot do, feeling that he truly belongs there. A brilliant and uncertain climactic ending in Munich, during the last days of Fasching, lusty, brawling holiday season which is to close with Hitler's coming-in to power. Dramatic, intense, reading in hard-clipped manner, but not for wide sale.