COCKS AND BULLS IN CARACAS

Feminine and indigenous introduction to Venezuelan life, as the author tells of her family and the way they lived. She emphasizes the old traditions in domestic and social life, what has been dropped and what is still carried over today. She contrasts woman's place, then, with the greater -- but still not absolute -- freedom now; she underlines the double standard and how it affects marriage and the masculine attitude toward women. Stories of her mother's duties and activities of her own traditional convent education and its stultifying effect, excursions to the country, courting through the window, her unwitting acceptance of a suitor, the differences between her cousin, conditioned to the traditional way of life, and herself, rebelling at restrictions, fighting for -- and sometimes given --more latitude, -- all make for entertaining reading. There's pointed criticism of the shortcomings in Venezuelan civilization, -- in education, child care, agricultural training, development of natural food resources. National interests, race problems, tourists, good Venezuelan food....An intimate, all-over picture of Venezuelan life, colorful and revealing, this will give readers more feeling of knowing what our Venezuelan neighbors are like than any number of serious surveys.