CAUSE FOR WONDER

by Wright Norris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 1963

Another wondrous, affecting suspension of perceptions, this concerned with the nature of Time, by the Master of the mobile consciousness. Faces of friends frozen in their fifties, a drama of a ruined castle, and Time's Fool himself float ke massive snowflakes as the author skillfully upends our tangential time sense to reveal surprises. As expected, Mr. Morris spins the external tale well. Warren Howe, middle-aged American, receives a summons from Germany to attend the funeral of M. ulac, proprietor of an ancient castle in which Howe had spent a few months in his outh, months during which time seemed to stand still. Revisiting other acquaintances ields only one companion for the journey, one Spiegel, collector of salvageable junk. Arriving at the castle, Warren and Spiegel find other visitors from the past, and the ool himself, tiny and crabbed in his tasselled cap. It is in that haunted ruin that the understanding comes: time can be stopped. There are marvelous snapshots of Warren's Progress--a brilliantly comic portrait of Howe's uncle, an historic dust-owl maker; the deliciously crazy ruins of the castle, in which a freshly painted ive owl comes as no surprise; a wily appraisal of a boy's school headmaster; Mr. Spiegel romantically riding salvage in the maelstroms. At times the excitement, the atmosphere and the virtuoso use of symbolism remind one of Point Counter Point and The Magic Mountain, Special for an aficionado audience.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1963

Categories: FICTION