The author of The Brick Foxhole with another grim, brutal, passionate story which traces the uncertainties, the confusions, in a period of adjustment of a war hero. The setting might be Oklahoma (never identified); racial problems are incidental but a constant irritant. The story revolves around the tug of war of two political factions for the public endorsement of Roy Nilsen whose medals had won him a symbolic value -- and whose share-cropper past he ""loathed, and could not forget. More important to him than politics was his love for Marge; his link with Gene Ramsay -- and his fear of the forces of revolution they represented. The standpatters paid well- he wanted position and money to marry Marge; his personal battle is waged against a sordid background of dirty politics-violence-gangster tactics-lynching-sudden death-denial of ballot box rights- conflicts within and without. The story ends with Roy and Marge united in effort to one goal, though it means death together. Brutal, lustful frequently, and in crude terms- disillusioning as to the role of the veteran making use of the violence he has learned at a hard school. The man has tremendous power in his writing- but the tender-skinned will find it tough reading.