THE WORLD WENT MAD

A shifting pattern of a world at war -- four years of it, in the lives of many people. The close of each chapter ""fades into"" the beginning of the next -- a thread carried through, broken now and again, but creating an impression of swift-- moving, impersonal depicting of ""sound and fury, signifying nothing"", in the days of war. The story revolves around various members of the Crellin family; the scene shifts from the trenches, to behind the lines ""at home"", to hospitals, to leave areas, to England, France, Mesopotamia, Egypt, the United States. Good reading, for those who can bear the astringent handling of the war. The man can write -- he knows his stuff -- he has a creative sense as well, as witness the contrast in the preceding novel, Waterfront.