A Night at the Airport

by Mark Aldanov. Scribner’s, $3.00.

In five of the seven short stories that make up this collection, Mark Aldanov pursues his predilection for “personalizing the historic person and event. Mussolini (in his last hours), Hitler (in his), Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin (at Yalta), as well as Michelangelo, are intimately introduced into the texture of these tales, and it is to Mr. Aldanov’s credit that they never appear absurd or untrue. His projections have a credibility that seems to be based on careful documentation and intelligent hazard. Coupled with this, Mr. Aldanov writes with a simplicity of line and a complexity of idea and detail that makes urbane reading. Nonetheless, it is the purely fictional title piece of the book, “A Night at the Airport,”that makes the most provocative and best-rounded story.