THE VIEW

Everyone in the little group of identical houses has a fine view, each different from that of the neighbors'--until people start building additions. Number 6's added story gives him an ocean vista, but unfortunately blocks the mountains seen from Number 5--and so on, until all agree to ""put their houses back to the way they had been."" Now, everyone is happy again--until a new neighbor builds a ""gigantic addition,"" thus beginning another round of competition for sightlines. The total absence of characterization and the mathematical simplicity of the text point up the fable's essential logic, leaving the reader to find parallel applications. Meanwhile, Henwood's sophisticated juxtapositions of yellow and bright sky blue with deeper blues and saturated reds and greens is unusually pleasing; appropriately, his stylized people play roles subordinate to the increasingly complex geometry of the houses and the pleasures of the patchwork-quilt landscape. A visually striking book with special appeal for budding philosophers.