The Gates of Hell
Potpourri
by .Vanguard, $2.50.
The gates of hell, according to this aggregation of short stories, sketches, and fragments, are many and varied. Mr. Willingham (the author of the controversial novel, End as a Man), there is no doubt of it, has a mind for the hallucinated, the perverse, the psychopathic, and the unillusioned and unlovely in human being and human situation. He also has a fine, clear ear for speech, and some disturbingly independent notions on what is fit for telling and how to tell it. The results are not ingratiating. Mr. Willingham’s hard-bitten irony and hard-hitting humors show more than a tinge of precocity and immaturity. As for the craft, it shines; it is swift, dexterous, fresh, and riveting.