THE ROOM BEYOND

The publisher's fall fiction leader, this sustains an emotionalism, often close to exaltation, at some length, popularly provides romantic and spiritual factors in the story of Danny Bryce and his Cristina. Meeting Cristina, a nurse in a slum section, as a boy- Danny determines to marry her when he grows up, refuses to accept her reputed death after she disappears. Ten years pass, and Danny, still obdurate in his conviction that Cristina is still alive and ageless, continues his search for her in New Orleans where he finds her again, and she gives him the incentive to become a doctor. Again time, and other women, do not obviate the memory of Cristina, and Danny finds her again in a Penitente village in New Mexico. A fourth meeting, in his old age, and he realizes that this will be her last disappearance, that their next meeting will take place in another world. The concept of the fourth dimensional world of time-space as the solution to the mystery-mirage of Cristina holds a certain curiosity, provides a contrast of temporal and intangible values... By the author of The Bells of St. Ivan's, a S.E.P. contributor, this is distinctly for popular-not critical- tastes.