short stories, sketches, reporting almost verbatim the inner struggles of men and women, confronted by contemporary issues. From family problems to men with and without work; from the artist, gifted but with his talents unused, to young American communists. There's a man, a fighter, a Frenchman symbolic of the fall of France, there' the conflict between generations. Stories in characteristically searching Farrell vein detailing frustrations, distrusts, self pity, self seeking, self delusion, human frailty in the face of things an they are. Not for hammock reading!