THIS TIME A BETTER EARTH

The author spent eight months with the International Brigade in Spain in 1937 and to some extent has fictionized his personal experiences in this novel. While it does not compare with the Hemingway nor Bates material in vividness, nor with the intellectual brilliance of the Malraux book, it has a freshness and youthful buoyancy that gives it a more popular flavor. Bob Curtis, 21 and a Canadian, joins up. This is his story and that of his five buddies. Albacete -- an air raid -- Madrid as a reporter when a slight injury keeps him from the thick of it -- a romantic interlude -- scenes in the trenches, on the streets and cafes of Madrid -- a cross section of a war ravaged country. Not a top ranking book, but sincere and with a certain gallantry.