THE CRADLE BUILDER

In Praise of Life had the power of an authentic record, with the weaknesses of the attempt to turn it into fiction. This story, which takes up Peter's life in America, his attempts at readjustment, at putting behind the insecurity and terror of his youth in Nazi Germany, and his marriage somehow lacks the poignancy and force of the earlier book. Perhaps there is too little of himself, too much of an attempt to show German- Americans at cross purposes, uncertain of the role they are playing. But it hasn't been done before, and has points of interest.