and a physical cessation, is a large swatchnto select. World War II, with its global,nmulti-ringed circuses of struggle andndeath, was so sprawling and kaleidoscopicnthat few writers have dared tondepict more than one sector, one aspect,nor one arena of its activity. Wouk hasntaken the entire spectacle and it isnastonishing that he uses only a barendozen of fictional characters to choreographnagainst every setting and importantnbackdrop and event of the period.nOf these dozen characters the mostnimportant is Victor Henry, who entersnthe stage in Washington, D.C. as a U.S.nnaval captain. He is forty-five, shortnand a career officer, whose knowledgenof the German language and analyticnability bring him to the attention ofnFDR. Wouk’s FDR is exactly as onenrecalls from the newsreels: charming,njaunty, shrewd, democratic but alsonlord of the manor. Captain Henry andnhis pretty, country-club wife Rhoda arensent to Berlin, where he meets and shencharms Hitler in the Chancellory. Thensettings are described with all the realismnand sense of immediacy of a photograph,nand the action moves as speedilynas if we are in a movie theater. Therenare endless complications, clues arenscattered shrewdly, and the reader isnswitched so swiftly from person to person,nscene to scene, that the predictabilitynof much of the plot is seldomnapparent.nOne of the Henrys’ two sons is a navalnjock and the other a more introspectivensort; their daughter is slightly rebellious.nShe goes to New York City andnfalls in with a sleazy radio personalityn—a setting Wouk brings deftly andnsurely to life. The older son enters thennaval air service; the younger visitsnEurope and falls in love with NatalienJastrow, a “liberated” New York beautynwho is tending her rich, famous uncle,nAaron Jastrow, author of A Jew’s Jesus.nNatalie, involved in an affair with anState Department bureaucrat who refusesnto marry a woman of Jewishndescent, decides to visit her lover inn14 inChronicles of CullurenPoland—and she and young Henry arencaught there during the German invasion.nMeanwhile Captain Henry graduallynlearns about Nazis, meets an Englishnradio correspondent traveling with anpretty daughter, and the author speedilynentwines the reader into a series ofnsimultaneous personal and politicalndevelopments. All the historic personagesnappear: Stalin, Churchill, variousnhigh officials in all camps includingnGoering at Karinhall as well as frightenednrefugees. The Winds of War describesnthe war by the Japanese againstnthe British in Asia, the triumphs of thenNazis in France and in Eastern Europe,nthe strategy and the surprises of thenearly war with clocklike, nearly computerlikenexpertise. From time to timenboth fictional adventures and real developmentsnpause while a mythical GermannGeneral Armin von Roon is quotednat length from an equally mythical tomentitled World Empire Lost, in whichnGerman rationalizations and boasts arenrefuted by a later, retired, translator,nVictor Henry. The readers are, thereby,nassured that the hero will survive, andnare also provided an overview of thenvarious military developments, lest theynlose their way amid the tangled stories.nThat line extends for over 1,000nprinted pages in The Winds of War,nand the paperback version issued inn1978 carried the legend on its cover:n”Over Three Million-Copy Best Seller.”nThere seems no reason to doubt thatnclaim; the first novel is eminently readablenand puts Natalie Jastrow into thenIn the forthcoming issue of Chronicles of Culture:nThe Ugly Beautiful Peoplen”For over six decades, Hollywood mirrored the characternand dreams of the nation. It did it in an unrefined, evenngarish, way, and was called the cradle of a new, vibrant,npopular and folksy art. Simple-mindedness and tinsel,nwhich has always determined Hollywood’s modus operandinand has always been associated with its image, did notnprevent it from capturing some essential truths aboutnAmerica, which, in turn, have commanded attention,nsympathy, sentiments and even respect from the worldnat large. During the ’60s, Hollywood was put on anotherncourse, hailed as ‘creative’ and ‘introspective’ by liberalnelites. Movies began to reflect the marginal rather thannthe essential, distortions and aberrations of reality rathernthan reality itself. Instead of dreams, we were offerednnightmares which were declared self-questioning insightsninto the actuality of both the desires and character ofnthe nation.”nfrom “Editor’s Comment”n”John Updike is a practitioner of what must be thendominant literary form today —the unfunny comic novel.”nfrom “Void Camouflagednby Vocabulary”nby Whit Stillmannalso:nOpinions & Views—Commendables—In FocusnWaste of Money—The American Scene—ScreennMusic—Liberal Culture —JournalismnPolemics & Exchangesnnn