Robert Louis Stevenson School - Circus Yearbook (New York, NY)

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WASTELAND BY JO SINCLAIR Wasteland by joe Sinclair, is the most unusual book I have ever read. It is a book that shows the progressive thinking and writing of young America. It made me think deeply, to the point where it still lingers in my mind. l Wasteland is the psychological study of a man-his loves, desires, hates, frustrations-his life from a point where he is bitterly unhappy to where he at last finds himself. It is not only a story of human relationships, but also of things that make life human. jake Brown, the central character, is a man of thirty-tive with a successful job as a newspaper photographer,-he is unhappy, and frustrated-he feels that his life and surroundings are one huge, desolately hopeless wasteland. Under the guidance and persuasion of his sister, he goes to the psychiatrist to whom she has been going. He is reluctant and completely adverse to the whole idea of psychiatry, but he is miserable to the point where he feels that anything is worth a try. In the beginning Jake finds it impossible to talk to the psychiatrist. But slowly, gradually, he tells of his life-his torments and fears -his family, whom he dislikes, but cannot tell why. As the story progresses, his family assumes a very important role. First there are his parents-two people whom he feels were never parents at all, but people to be tolerated, put up with, his father, tyranical, weak, his mother, oppressed, timid, without a personality, his nephews, Bernie and Allen, whom he wants to protect and do right by --especially Bernie, mis- understood unhappy adolescent, and most important of all, his sister Debby-the only person strong enough to overcome the miserableness of her life, and be happy, intelligent, creative, sensitive Debby- bearing without hate people's contempt of her because, as a child, as a result of the weakness of the father and the whole family, she had had to assume the responsibilities of a man, and had therefore become a homosexual. jake, in the beginning, doesn't realize his problems. What seems to him to be the real problems- his unwillingness to attend the Passover Seder which is a ritual in his family-his reluctance to photo- graph the persons close to him - his feeling of aloneness - are in reality superficial cover-ups for the deep problems that grew out of his childhood. As the psychiatric treatment progresses and you are able to see the why and wherefore of these problems, you find yourself more interested in the problems, their roots and the treatment than in Jake or the book itself. Psychiatry becomes fascinating as you realize the reasons for jake's withdrawal from his home, his family, and most important, his people. You are made to realize that everyone has a wasteland of repressed fears and doubts and desires and that each person has to overcome that waste- land individually, with or without the understanding and guidance of a psychiatrist. The author writes with unbelievable understanding, ,knowledge and courage. For it takes courage to write, in a first novel, about the taboo subjects -of the sub-conscious of a man, of psychiatry, of homo- sexuality, of the jewish religion and tradition-especially in a world where there is still so much con- vention and opposition to the mere mention of these things. This book is honest and sincere. Human beings and their problems are portrayed realistically and with throbbing sympathy. It is bitter at times, but the bitterness is filled with truth and frankness. It is, and will remain to me, a true and beautiful book. Susan lgearfnan

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The dark street is light the traffic roped off- the feel of a carnival is in the air. Old women with wrinkled faces sit on rusty fire escapes now bright with strings of colored lights Flags and streamers drape the windows and lamp posts. A little band plays. Old and young dance in the dirty street. One little kid with bony knees and a pinched face jumps I 0 BLOCK PARTY 2? of ' , , F ' , . A 'I in and out of the crowd singing by himself. An old couple and girls throw themselves around in a sort of homemade ' mv as 9? KX A ' ' , jitterbug step The band goes faster the old women tap their tired feet A soldier sits on the stoop, looking into the crowd Tomorrow the street will be bleak the gaudy decorations will look worn and faded people will go on about their everyday business The bright night will be forgotten. margof Zilla!-'A dance, the wife with laughing eyes and greasy apron. Boys its 1 .XJ G: . 9 2 '- i ' 5 ' c We ' . N6 rl fp 1 1 'Q L THE UN VAN UISHED BY HOWARD FAST The novel about George Washington, during one period of the Revolutionary War, was as real as an account of Al Schmidt in World War II. A few paragraphs in a grade school history book could cover what led up to that second successful crossing of the Delaware, but The Unvanquishedn brought it into life by treating the characters as men, some fighting for ideals, others for money or adventure. Fast left them as ordinary men, sick and tired of fighting the superior British Army, who kept on fighting any- way. Washington, being the main character, was the clearest. His reaction to defeat, gwhich he takes as a personal failure, is to push his body and mind further until he and his men win. This is essentially a novel of one man, but through his objectivity, the men in the American Army and the people for and against them, are glimpsed. Nathan Hales I am sorry I have but one life to give to my country were not now empty words, because of the chapter devoted to him. Tom Paine's relation to the Continental Army is also clearer. One scene of action, which is after two centuries a ferry stop, takes on a certain air of adventure now that the story of how it got its name is told. The style that brings dead names, dates, and events back to life, is the casual tone it is told in. The Generals Knox, Washington, and Mifflin are interested in winning this war of freedom, but they also want comfort and their homes. I If is not an historical novel that gives chronological order or facts, but it does show the man who did a great job of leading an army that was the first to fight for the United States. podafyn Woadowifz i nom 0 Qu N

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY BY HENRY' JAMES The Portrait of a Lady by Henry james is indeed a portrait of one lady Isabel Archer Osmond surrounded by her intimates. After reading nine hundred and some odd pages you will be able to see this portrait-Isabel and everyone who has affected her life grouped around her. You will be intimately acquainted with these persons' intellect and personality, but their physical proportions will have been supplied by your imagina- tion for Henry James doesn't describe his characters' features, except once or twice when he alludes to some very prominent point that emphasizes a specific personality trait. Henry james takes an insignificant plot that can be described in a dozen words. lt's the kind of plot that Faith Baldwin might stretch into two hundred pages of fiction. The characters, too, would be insignificant in the hands of many other writers, since basically each is one or another stereotype. The wonderful part of The Portrait of a Lady is what Henry James does With such often misused material, of course, he wrote in the 18805 and it may have been fresh then, but I doubt it. The characters are skillfully described, their personalities are unfolded by the author's direct description of them and by the opinions of the novel's other characters. Thus the characters become not only individuals but related people- one affecting another. The people form a unit: meeting at each other's houses, scheming, quarrelingg and generally living. You become absorbed in the book, and forget it's just a make-believe story till suddenly, you come upon a situation which seems to be a cliche. Then you'll find yourself startled because the conventional solution doesn't appear. Upon examination, however, it's logical. You don't feel cheated. The characters are people acting according to their own personality patterns. This honest character portrayal is true to life making the whole book three di- mensional. Things happen gradually. You have waited for them so long they are anti- climaxes when they occur. Even the crisis of the book doesn't cause your heart beat to change. But it's a story involving people, real people, caught in meshes of their own weaving by their own personality, which you have thoroughly examined. Isabel Archer Osmond, the lady with whom the book is particularly concerned and around whom its situations revolve, becomes very well known to you. After the first one hundred pages I could have described her, now I'm too well acquainted to pin her down with adjectives. In the beginning I saw her outward mask: the unpretentiousness, the charm, the wit, and the imagination. Now I still see the same qualities, but also what's behind them and how they act. I could say confidentially to a friend, Isabel's very unusual. She's witty, and very imaginative. just wait till you hear her ideas! Oh, I know you'll like Isabel very much. But I would like to ponder a long time, if I had to go further. All the while you're reading, you know that Henry james has drawn his characters to scale with an eye to every one of your reactions. You feel that he really knows people and how to describe them. Henry james persuaded me Cwithout objection on my partb that people are im- portant. Important in the largest sense possible for people not only affect material things, but even more, other people. james thinks the latter of primary importance. The changes brought about in people are permanent and remain even though they may be obscured by the development of some other long hidden personality trait. The Portrait of a Lady was enjoyable for its realistic attitudes. However, I can see that its length and repititions, which might sometimes have been omitted, would annoy a reader impatient for action and escape. mia minfrau!