Burditt’snHappy EndingnJoyce Burditt: The Cracker Factory;nMacmillan; New York, 1977.nA housewife’s autobiographical novelnabout a human being’s recovery fromnalcoholism and mental trouble. Burdittncommitted two grave mistakes: her storynglorifies a good husband and ends on anhappy note. A liberal book-club turnedndown her book as “politically regressive.”nAs Burditt said in an interview: “Theynobjected to the main character going backnto her husband in the end . . . Well, mynhusband supported me financially andnevery other way for a year and a halfnwhile I worked on it. He maintained hisnown writing career as well as cleaning,ncooking, and taking care of three cats, andog, and three teen-agers.” •nWhite’snSerene TalentsnE.B. White: Essays of E.B. White;nHarper & Row; New York, 1977.nThe sizeable checks from magazinesngo nowadays to people who know how tonuse terms like “role models” or “roleplaying”nin their writing. Applying thisnnomenclature to an assessment of E.B.nWhite, man and work, one might say:nHe is an American cultural model whosenrole is venerable simplicity. He certainlynCOMMENDABLESnis too, in our opinion, one of the fewn”men of letters” in our contemporarynliterary tradition. This distinguishes himnfrom writers and novelists. Eudora Welty,na woman of letters, wrote recently aboutnWhite in The New York Times BooknReview: “The writing is itself datelessnas a cloudless sky, because the authornhas dateless virtues . . .” And: “In thisncollection, Mr. White has made suchnscenes as the summers of ‘the Americannfamily at play’ fadeless for us.” Such anliterary feat seems incredible in our epochnof frustration and abomination perceivednby writers as the gist of life. However, itnseems to have been wrought in the pagesnof this book. •nCaputo’s ProbitynPhilip Caputo: A Rumor of War;nHolt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1977.nThis is perhaps the first honest journalisticnattempt to tell us more aboutnVietnam than the modish stereotypes. Itnexceeds journalism and attains the art ofna thoughtful, literary documentation.nThe author obviously cares for integrity—hisnwork’s and his own. The warncan now be seen not through politicalnslogans, but through the human mindnand human sensitivities. Caputo knowsnthe taste of man’s humiliation in the facenof the unacceptable, and he values man’snfaculty for reasoning without relying onnmodish cliches. For this he has been uniformlynacclaimed in all quarters ofnAmerican cultural opinion. •nnnEidelberg’snKeen InsightnPaul Eidelberg: Beyond Detente;nSherwood Sugden & Company;nLaSalle, Illinois, 1977.nHow to be right and honorable innforeign policy without being sentimentalnor jingoistic? This is the perennial quandarynof statesmen and leaders. Dr.nEidelberg, Salvatori Research Professornat Claremont College, is a scientist’snscientist gifted in the selection of aptnquotations, and impressive in the multitudenof statistics data adduced in supportnof his conclusions. He extrapolates fromnthe writings of Jefferson, Madison,nHamilton, Washington and Lincoln anprojection of how they might behave ifnfaced with Castros, Brezhnevs, the problemsnof the Export-Import Bank and ournhamletic dilemma with computers soughtnby communists: to sell or not to sell.” Ifnyou suppress your inclinations to commentnon foreign policy, in fear of beingnaccused of “imperialistic” and “reactionary”ninstincts—you would find innProfessor Eidelberg a fountain of irrefutablenarguments to fend off such incriminations.n•n19nChronicles of Culturen