VARIETY
225
demolish a valuable and ancient
interior on three bottles of red
wine: on Mr. Hersey's own report–
ing not a very sympathetic lot.
By contrast the generally ami–
able natives (the fascist ex-mayor
excepted), and the Italian-Amer–
ican hyphenates, Major Joppolo
and Sergeant Trapani, shine as if
bathed in an angelic light. And
this Major Joppolo is thoroughly
credible; is he not essentially Fio–
rello LaGuardia, without the fire–
man's helmet? It is Major Joppolo
who provides the one measure of
hope in the whole episode. He is an
Italian-American who is so Italian
in sentiment that on landing he
touches with his open hand the soil
of his ancestors and exclaims, "It
is like coming home." At the same
time he is a genuine representative
of what is most real in American
democracy. Eventually he is be–
trayed and repudiated by the Hun–
dred-Percenters. This seems to us
unconsciously and prophetically
symbolical. Are not the men who
betrayed and repudiated Joppolo
the men who may one day destroy
all that is good in American life?
In the train of events arising
from General Marvin's encounter
with the somnolent driver of a
mulecart on the highroad to Adano
(an incident notoriously non-ficti–
tious) , the basic contrast between
two irreconcilable cultural tradi–
tions works itself out to its inev–
itable conclusion. And throughout
the action of the novel Major
Joppolo belongs heart and soul
with the people of Adano, remain–
ing variously the wop, dago or
meatball to his Anglo-Saxon asso–
ciates.
What are we to make of all this?
If
the Marvins and the Livingstons
represent the crudity and brutality
of American life, what about the
Joppolos? They, too, are America,
after all; and so are the Herseys,
with their good intentions and eag–
erness to understand the events
they witness. It is only through the
services of the latter that America
can gain the good will of the op–
pressed peoples. The generals could
well be left on the battlefield, and,
if they are of "Hell-and-God–
damit" Marvin's calibre, corralled
with the cantankerous army mules.
Thus would the martyred mule
of Adano be properly avenged!
JosEPH CANNATA
Magazine Rack
F
EW readers of PARTISAN REviEw
are likely to belong to that
small but valiant coterie which
takes its cue from
College English,
the official organ of the National
Council of English Teachers. Its
February number contains (along
with more representative articles,
such as "The Preterite-Present
Verbs of Present-Day English") an
article in which a Miss Winifred
Lynskey gives Mr. John Crowe
Ransom a rather rough going over.
This may be worth a little atten–
tion.
Mr. Ransom, Miss Lynskey be–
lieves, falls into "serious inaccura–
cies," is a thoroughgoing Platonist,
and is frequently guilty of wishing
to "prove a point [rather] than be
right." She is particularly repelled
by the handling A. E. Housman re–
ceives from the critic. Ransom's
"destruction" of the poem, in which
Housman's deceased lightfoot lads
and rose-lipt maidens load the po–
et's heart with rue, is accomplished,
she feels, by an excess of literal an–
alysis, and is, moreover, "inept" and
"erroneous." It strikes me that here
Miss Lynskey is less troubled by
Ransom's strategies than by a de–
sire to provide her own twenty-
