x. far richer and more thought-provokingnwork is George Steiner’s ThenPortage to San Cristobal of A.H., whichnbrings to mind an image from another ofnYeats’s poems, “The Second Coming”:n”And what rough beast, its hour comenround at last/Slouches toward Bethlehemnto be born?” The “rough beast” innSteiner’s novel is a 90-year-old AdolfnHitler, found in the jungles of thenAmazon by a group of Israelis whose goalnis to bring him not to Bethlehem to benborn but to Jerusalem to be tried and putnto death. It is an intriguing, complexnwork about the power of language tonbring man to his salvation or damnation,nabout how good can becomeninseparable from evil, about how forgettingncan renew, and how memory canndestroy. Discordiaconcors. In everythingnits opposite.nThe interior of the jungle throughnwhich the Israelis carry Hitler is primitive,nuncivilized, at once compared tonHades and Eden. Various tribes of Indiansnchart the Israelis’ path and progress,neach conveying the information to thentribe further on. The nazi-hunters arenoblivious to this surveillance and alsonto the fact that their progress is beingnmonitored by intelligence officers in thenmajor capitals of the world. Juxtaposednto their journey through the interior ofnthe Amazonian jungle is the exteriornworld and its more sophisticated, morenambiguous communication systemnbased on the word. Each of the playersnmanipulates words in his own way and tonadvance his own cause. A British academiciannis best known as the author of anbook which “proves” that Hitler died inn194 5. A Russian pathologist who had examinednHitler’s corpse and testified thatnit was not the Fiihrer’s, then retracted hisntestimony under pressure, is summonedndecades later to restate his original thesis.nAnd restate it he docs. A French intelligencenofficer presents his perceptionsnthrough his diary entries; a German legalnscholar pores over documents to ascertainnGermany’s rights in the event of Hider’snrecapture; the U.S. Secretary of Statenparleys with reporters in the politico’sn”doublespeak” during a press conference.nA C.I.A. operative posing as annentrepreneur ready to cash in on the findncomes to Orosso armed with contractsngranting himself sole and exclusive rightsnto the story. His prospective partner hasnmonitored the Israelis’ progress via radio,nhas several falsified passports that indicatenno national loyalties, and seemsnless interested in money than in thenpossibility of international wheelingnand dealing.nOne of the book’s most masterful controllersnof the language is EmmanuelnLieber, who directs the search operationnfrom a small office in Tel Aviv and fornwhom the memory of the Holocaust hasnnever lost its original vividness. WithoutnLieber’s powers of persuasion and thensound of his “voice, more binding thannthe swamp,” the Israelis might have forsakenntheir search long before—or, morenlikely, might not have begun it at all. Thenbook’s most powerful chapter is the one innwhich Lieber speaks, cataloguing thencrimes of the nazis, atrocity by atrocity,ntelling just enough of each so that thenreader completes the image in his mind’sneye. Yet Lieber is presented not so muchnas a contrast to Hider as a complement:n”There was only one thing left of him:nhis waiting. That was his soul and nervenand bone. Just like this man. Waiting.”nThroughout the book, distinctions arenblurred, phrases turned, expectationsnunfulfilled. The final chapter is a soliloquyndelivered by the master word-manipulatornhimself, Adolf Hitler. To hisnIsraeli captors, he declares that nazismnIn the Mailnwas a “parody” of Zionism and that itnwas the Holocaust which gave them then”courage of injustice” to claim Israel asntheir own. He concludes:nThe Reich begat Israel. These are mynlast words. The last words of a dyingnman against the last words of thosenwho suffered; and in the midst of incertitudenmust matters be left till thengreat revelation of all secrets.nYet Hitler’s words are not the last in thenbook, nor is there any end punctuation.nThe last image is auditory, the sound ofnhelicopters hovering overhead, ready tondestroy both A.H. and his IsraeU captors.nSilence will return to the jungle, and, innthe exterior world, men will continue tonmanipulate words to their own advantage.nHitler’s voice can be forgotten, asncan the voices of those who sought to remindnthe uncaring world of his evil.nlo say that Steiner’s work is clever yetnto praise it and to apply the same term tonCheever’s novel pejoratively is not necessarilyna contradiction. Cheever’s clevernessnis transparent, almost to the extentnthat Paradise seems to be novel-writingnreduced to formula: a glitzy cover +n$10.00 price tag + 100 pages + xvoguishntopics + y literary techniques = onenbest-seller. To call a work of art “clever,”nwhether used as a aiticism or commendation,nspeaks primarily of its intellectualnand imaginative qualities. While one cannadmire Steiner’s novel on those counts,nespecially for its subtlety, one wishesnultimately for a clearer moral stance on thenissues it addresses. DnConcise Histories of American Popular Culture edited by M. Thomas Inge; Greenwood Press;nWestport, CT. From Advertising to Women, this compilation of essays provides an examinationnof things that most take for granted, but which others consider very seriously.nEqual Protection and Personal Rights: The Regime of the “Discrete and Insular Minority ” bynEdwardJ. Eriet; The Claiemont Institute; Clatemont, CA. This paper examines how the equalprotectionnclause of the l4th Amendment is interpreted by the Court-and others who always seekn”class” differences.nGod’s Words to His Church by the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Nolo, Italy; Ignatius Press;nSan Francisco, CA. This study guide to the Church in the Bible was originally developed for usenby missionaries in the Peruvian Andes, yet it has useful qualities for more sophisticated settings.nnn^^•^33nDecember 198Sn