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BOOK REVIEW    ROGERS

His "Second April" is a series of incomplete thoughts which are grouped together to form several paragraphs. These fragments indicate absolutely no continuity or relationship of thought. They have a quality of emptiness. There is also a loss of human character which reveals a degeneration of thought.
  
The last portion of this collection "Abomunist Manifesto" by Bomkauf is a declaration denoting total rejection of society. As he states in his opening statement, "Abomunists reject everything except snowmen." The manifesto expresses who abomunists are and what their general behavior, attitudes and beliefs should be. This work has been cleverly written and has a satirical quality though some parts are incomprehensible. Portions from the conclusion of the manifesto:

Civilian Defense Headquarters unveils new bomb shelter with two-car garage, complete with indoor patio and barbecue unit that operates on radioactivity, comes in decorator colors, no down payment for vets, to be sold only to those willing to sign loyalty oath. ...Forest Lawn Cemetery opens new subdivision of split-level tombs for middle-income group.... Pope may allow priests to marry said to be aiming at one big holy family.... Cubans seize Cuba, outraged U.S. acts quickly, cuts off tourist quota, administration introduces measure to confine all rhumba bands to detention camps during emergency.
  
Solitudes Crowded With Loneliness is written by a Black American who has spent most of his years on other shores. His works are universal in character and reflect moral pain rather than anger. Granted that the content generally expresses hopelessness and at times a loss of human character, Kaufman has keen perception and a brilliant command of the language.
                                            
Norma Rogers


TO KEEP FROM CRYIN'

LAUGHING ON THE OUTSIDE: THE INTELLIGENT WHITE READER'S GUIDE TO NEGRO TALES AND HUMOR. Edited by Philip Sterling. Introduction by Saunders Redding. Grosset and Dunlap, New York. 254 pp. $3.95.

OF THE MANY interlacing factors that make up the collective world of the Black American, humor is the best known and the least 

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