Agent in Italy
$3.00
By DOUBLEDAY, DORAN
AN old saying applies to this author: that what is his is not good, and what is good is not his. The daily life and talk of Rome, the rumors and moods, even certain connections between social circles and political events, all the gossip that can be picked up by conversing with all sorts of people, — from the café waiter and the shop girl to the manufacturer with whom one swaps cigars, - are reported with breezy gusto. But when the author tries to cook up a “thriller” in police and society circles his lack of imagination and knowledge betray him. For the political background, he relies on half-understood hearsay; his information and his language are haphazard; he dues not even trouble to get the simplest facts straight.
Who is the author, “S. K.”? The conclusion that suggests itself is that an enterprising ghost writer got hold of a German salesman who has been doing some espionage on the side and who has the small businessman’s unconcern for both intellectual standards and political facts. Indeed, if any of the story were true, we should have good reason to be alarmed, for no altering of names or circumstances could save S. K.’s acquaintances from jail. Any authentic and responsible statement on underground activities is bound to be in general and impersonal terms, as may be seen from Chapter 37, which is expository and not connected with the narrative, and appears to emanate from some well-informed person, probably in this country. This section rings true. From it we extract a passage which is worth pondering: “ The [underground] leaders yearn for a new league of peoples’ nations, and their idealism is strengthened by the Atlantic Charter. But at the same time . . . Italy must not again lose its identity and independence in a condominium of nations either of the extreme Left or the extreme Right. The Nazis have given them enough of that. The salvation of the country, they declare, must be worked out by those who have stayed and fought and given blood, not by political theorists living outside.” G. DES.