The Witness
by. Pantheon, $2.50.
An introspective and simply written tale about a narcissistic young man who believes himself a coward, by a novelist who has been encouraged by Albert Camus. The story is told by the “coward” to a friend, and is stylistically reminiscent of André Gide’s The Immoralist. There are two things lacking in The Witness that are present in Gide’s masterpiece, and they are crucial. Gide’s protagonist is a complex, intelligent, and fascinating personality, and the tone of urgency is proper to the book. The protagonist in The Witness is a bit on the lumpish side, rather uninteresting and unsympathetic; and the tone of urgency is false (the events fail the tone). Still there is evidence that Camus isn’t altogether off the mark.