The Trains [unclear: an] on Time

[unclear: T] New India [unclear: i] Mehta [unclear: guin]

Why don't Indians work a lot harder, [unclear: less] children and solve their problems?" [unclear: re's] no simple answer to this or any [unclear: ques- on] India Ved Mehdta makes this clear in [unclear: atest] of a series of varied books. The New a is the India of Indira Gandhi's rise and Her rule culminating in 'Emergency' is [unclear: ribed] in a critical, yet involving way.

[unclear: When] one begins the book it all sounds personal. New Delhi in 1974-1975 is [unclear: setting] and the upper middle-class of [unclear: h] Mehta is part, are the actors. The [unclear: or] does not stay with this limitation. [unclear: ugh] statistics, apt quotation, and [unclear: ex-les] of every Jay life, he includes the [unclear: ses] 75% of whom are unemployed, this less well defined mass, the villagers urban poor, that are the backdrop to Madams' rise and part of her fall.

[unclear: Irs] Gandhi's role is described in detail, not an historical treatise from Nehru [unclear: ly] background to her loss at the March [unclear: 7] elections. Mehta interweaves political [unclear: il], history (from the Vedas on), [unclear: philo-] (even Aristotle), economics and some [unclear: ip] like details to show the growth of [unclear: itorship]. Many gaps in Western coverage [unclear: illed] with viewpoint from Marxists, [unclear: Wes-] economists, the pro-Emengency cabal those apposed to the growth of fascism, fascism hade its seeds in manipulating the [unclear: ocratic]' structure. The hook clearly shows growth of dictatorship through [unclear: mani-ition] of so called democratic means. It a lot to teach us in a very readable man-

The mass reaction to Indira Ghandhi is less clearly described. It would be nice to have a simple answer with the people saying they had just enough suffering and electing the Janata Party was the answer. The writer is aware that this is part of the reaction. There are no simple deductions and the preceding parts of the book make us aware of the complexity of the enormous sub-continent. None of the other post-Indira books that flooded Indian bookships could explain the election clearly and Mehta also does not give a formulae. He does however weave a detailed matrix of factors contributing to Mrs Gandhis rise and fall. He is hopeful that the reaction against the dictatorship has the seeds of panchayat government; village based democracy. One is left with this positive thought amid a wealth of involving detail, and knowledge of Indian problems.

The detail is narrated in many different ways. One could label The New India as a current affairs account, a valid recent history, a study of dictatorship in a developing country or a "searching compassionate" book. One label would simplify the presentation of India that Mehta knows well and using one tag is like saying that Indira Gandhi was a fine leader because the trains ran on time.

Stephen Hall

The Bird Cage

Falconer

—John Cheever

This novel is of excellent quality. It is deep from many angle, its irony, its themes, its tale. There is mostly a depth in human exploration, the thoughts revealed are worth pursuing.

The novel centres upon a prisoner convicted of fratricide, he is a heroine addict. It unfolds his memories, good memories, it uncovers the depths of human experience I did not expect a novel that would present a prison character as human, it has become easy to think of prisoners as sub-human because of some action(s), as the law regards them thus.

This book seldom allows that to happen, it lifts aloft this man, guilty of serious crime, holds him aloft as a 'human' in prison. It is this that makes the characters in the novel acceptable, perhaps not in their action, but as humans. It is not full of sentiment, it is full of homosexuals, crooks, wardens, masturbators and situations most people would not dream possible, or would not wish to understand. Old prisoners who have never had visitors, and have no future glimpses of birds, excretia, pet cats, love affairs, criminal histories, doubts, blues singers, escapes, masturbation rooms, cruelty, all of these are covered within one book.

This book does not exist on levels, it joins parts of an old story together, the product of a clever mind. Cheever is popular in America, his rough and beautiful qualities are difficult to separate, difficult to mix. If Americans are thinking about these things, knowing them from close contact (though not necessarily from prison itself) then it is pretty interesting. . . .

The book had an influence over my mind but not my heart. Maybe it is a book that a reader cannot read just blindly, it demands sensitivity. Can it be classed as rubbish because who bothers to think of murderers and the like as a class of citizens worth being sensitive about? That is a complex question indeed, let the prisoners speak. ... I think it worth reading, and thinking about.

Sandra Watson