LOVE, LET ME NOT HUNGER

A new vein for Paul Gallico, but one that will not disappoint his admirers and that may well create a new audience. There is, to be sure, that competence of craftsmanship:- Gallico integrates his plot, his characters, his background into a flawless whole. But this time he has told a story of many facets of love against a unique background, that of a small English travelling circus stranded by disaster in a remote part of the seemingly limitless plain of La Mancha, in Spain. The principals of the story are the members of the circus ""family""- and in particular those left to handle the animals of the menagerie, of the acts and the horses when the big top is struck by lightning and burns down. Then there is Rose, who chooses to stay with Toby of the equestrian troupe, and Mr. Albert, who has taught her to love the wild animals as he does. Rose- despite her dubious morals-has managed to eep a strange kind of goodness and innocence, even when she sells the only commodity he owns to secure food for the animals. Then Mr. Albert and the dwarf Janos find that they too have something to sell- to the Marquesa, whose desperate plight can never find recompense in her fortune. It is an odd and enthralling tale- which closes on an upbeat of hope.