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FREEDOMWAYS                     FIRST QUARTER 1968

wonders: how would Honore de Balzac have handled this tremendous mass of data? Or Mikhail Sholokhov? It is a fruitless question. Miss Shapiro-Bertolini has produced a splendid novel, one that will touch the reader's heart and hold his interest to the end. Her portrayal of character is, in this reviewer's opinion, masterly and original.
  
This reviewer's chief negative criticism is of the proof-reading, which has left many misspelled words, and, annoyingly, allowed some lines to be dropped on page 98. Also painfully disturbing is the unfortunate sentence on page 233: "The spectre of fascism was haunting America." This is a false use of literary allusion, a use which contradicts the novelist's own intent. The original, of course, is the opening line of the Communist Manifesto: "A spectre is haunting Europe. The spectre of communism."

Miss Shapiro-Bertolini lives on the West Coast, a fortunate circumstance for her novel, since it gave her Asians as well as Europeans as types for her central characters. Had she roamed more widely across the United States, she might have taken in Afroamericans, too, such as Claudia Jones and Ferdinand C. Smith, as models for her fictional people. (Claudia Jones was deported to England; Ferdinand Smith to Jamaica in the West Indies.) She would then have had ten instead of eight persons sitting in that row on the speakers' platform!
  
But this suggestion, too, is inconsequential. The story is already saturated with ideas of internationalism and racial equality, and concludes with a tender chapter on the "four little Negro children who were killed in Alabama by southern racists." Included is a renewed dedication to be "on the march again" for genuine equality of all peoples regardless of color or land of origin.
  
I may add that any reader, and also any writer, will relish the description of how Saulus proposed to Ruta Vasaris, and how Zivelle finally yielded to Paul Chung. The "four-year walk" of Irene Moyer will give many readers something new to think about, and the faults that Lila odiscovers in the character of the admirable Sandor Jonas will do the same for male readers. It is such original portrayals, despite small slips, that demand a high rating for this novel.

Oakley C. Johnson

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