Solitary Confinement
by . Coward-McCann, $2.75.
The Germans arrested Chiristopher Burney while he was in France on special service in l942 and kept him for eighteen months in solitary confinement. Locked in a prison near Paris, he invented games to pass the time, figured out a sun clock from the angles of buildings, philosophized and debated with himself about religion. He discovered no great truths and came to no fixed conclusions, but his speculations warded off hysteria and loneliness.
Although the book concentrates on the means by which Mr. Burney dealt with his mental isolation and has little to say about his physical circumstances, bits of prison life do turn up and there are a couple of chilly interviews with the Herman authorities, illustrating the art of lying at its best. Altogether an impressive record of resourcefulness and adaptability.