WINDOM'S WAY

A quite different type of book from what Ullman has done heretofore. Instead of making his central theme man's struggle against the forces of nature (The White Tower -- the mountains; River of the Sun -- the jungle), this time he makes man's struggle against himself -- the war of ideas -- a dominant theme. While the result is not as unique, as successful, as the earlier metier, the story itself, and its characters have an impact of their own. Inevitably, the reader is going to sense parallels with the actual story of Dr. Seagrave (Burma Surgeon) in this account of Dr. Windom, who found fulfillment in a life dedicated to serving his little people in a forgotten outpost of Southeast Asia. The area was important to the outside world only as a source of rubber, and an ineffectual local government, a sadistic plantation supervisor, and belatedly a reactionary national government recognized only this factor. Belatedly, too, the people took things into their own hands. Rice they must have -- and growing of rice was forbidden; it took time and effort away from rubber. So a few fiery young leaders took things over, and Dr. Windom found himself caught in the middle. It did not make it easier for him that his wife, rich, unstable, anxious to mold him to her image, had after two years' separation come out to join him. In the end, the doctor found his belief in the rebellious villagers betrayed, as the Reds, hovering on the outskirts, caught them at their moment of defenselessness; found, too, his faith in the word of the outsiders betrayed. Only his faith in the work he had to do held him -- inflexibly -- to ""Windom's Way"".