This is a collection of short stories by Langston Hughes, written in the 1930s, concerned with various aspects or tne relawonsnips berween black and white people. Through the pages of the book we find a whole range of white atitudes, succinctly portrayed, Red Weekiv 31 Auaust 1072 Pano G wider social process of the oppression of black people There are two stories about lynching. The first is of a negro violinist who had come home from Europe to visit his parents in a Southern town. He stopped to talk to a white woman who had been his music teacher and was lynched to keep negroes in their place.' The other story concerns a negro who shot himself before the mob reached him, so they strung up his body. This, apparently, wasn't good enough fun for the mob, so they went back in the afternoon and lynched his brother, Smallcreep's Day by Peter Currell Brown (Picador, 40p).
Peter Brown's book is the story of a surrealistic Journey wurouge a capiaust lactory. ine centra "looked after' the factory sewage and was right at the bottom of the wages scale - but he knew his place ... Are vou telling me to ask them to unset the en tire system of wage differential upon which the Unions, and indeed all society, stand? Unions exist to create and preserve order and syntax in our socicty, not to back up the haphazard fancies of greedy and irresponsible minorities or individuals. The book also reveals something of the persecution which gay people face at the hands of the working class, in the scenes in which Smallereep is accused of being a homosexual. But the book is not just a collection of incidents which occur as Smallereep explores the factory and the offices, it is also a clever exposition of how the various aspects of capitalist production combine to угосисс инениют waca smancrcco rcacnes tne final product of the factory all he can see of it is that ul makes a lot or noise, pouures te almospnere, and is generally an indescribable abomination. The Second Death of Ramon Mercador by Jorge Semprun (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, £2.25).
"The Second Death of Ramon Mercader by Jorge Semprun, the script writer of 'Z', is ostensibly a spy thriller of the Americans vs the Russians variety. This however is merely a vehicle for weaving in other strands. It deals with the effects of the degeneration of the Russian Revolution on an Old Bolshevik who has been reabilitated after 'De-Stalinisation.' He is now employed by the KGB and the contrast between being an agent of the World Revolution for the Comintern in the twenties and the present is particularly well portrayed. Weaving through the whole story is the allusion to the first Ramon Mercader -well worth reading.
President Allende of Chile has now called off The tune is now being called by the right wing; arms over the past few weeks.
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The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes (Wild wood House, 90p).