SO LITTLE TIME

This will sell -- as always -- because everyone who reads it knows people like the people in it; recognizes scenes and situations like these which comprise the bulk of its close on to 700 pages; hears echoes of familiar conversation patterns, allusions, even quips and jokes and references to the passing scene. To that great majority of readers who like this recognition quality in books, So Little Time will be a welcome relief from the more weighty books about the war. This, to be sure, is virtually contemporary, the war hangs over the mood of Jeffrey (an extension of H. M. Pulham, on many counts) -- and it is not until his son has gone overseas that he rationalizes himself out of a sense of the imperative need to be part of it. Through the months leading up to this, he grows closer to his son in understanding and willingness to let go the shibboleths that have controlled his life. There is ""so little time"" in which to seize life and live it as one wishes.... On the whole, this adds nothing to his stature.