ROAD INLAND

Again the unadjusted (The Cleft In The Rock -- 195 ) is the central character but this time, instead of man in the North, it is Lt. Lee Caine, of the First Platoon of X Field Hospital, whose husband is out in the Pacific, and who, from the European invasion through the surrenders, is pursued by guilt, loneliness and eventually despair. She is embarked on the great adventure with the expectancy of youth but the weeks and weeks of unholy carnage; the drive, demands and eventual collapse of their surgeon, Major Collier; the attraction of wounded tanksman, William Stainer; and, always fatigue, sleeplessness, and the constant association with pain and death, bring on a protective indifference. Through the change of fronts, the backlog of the hospital's cases, the treatment of German prisoners, the isolation created by Collier's interest in her, and her withdrawal from the reality of her marriage, Lee carries her growing insecurity to the point of suicide -- when her assignment to the Pacific is cancelled with the Japanese victory -- and draws back from the breaking point to take on a future for which there is no blueprint. The men have had the edge on war novels -- here's a woman's part that doesn't play down the small glory, the bloodiness, the waste.