Word: author
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...remaining tales, Author Herlihy comes up, relatively speaking, for a breath of fresh air. One of them is just a simple study of a female lunatic. Evident in all these tales is the hand of a writer for whom the short story is not only a form in itself but a steppingstone to what may well be "twisted" theater of impressive quality...
...Sleep sets the tone for most of the other stories by introducing Author Herlihy's obsessive interest in the "foetal" world of prehistory, when the "gray vapor-covered earth" was ruled by "giant serpents and tiny-headed monsters." Weeping in the Chinese Window describes the cruel seduction by a tiny-headed monster in human form of a spinster who has never suspected the existence of primeval, serpentine masculinity. A Summer for the Dead features a lusty gal who is rejected by a man dead from the waist down and settles for one who is only dead from the neck...
...story of this battle is not only the $10,000 Harper Prize Novel of 1959 but something of a prize in itself. Author White was born on an Indian hill station, where his American father was a missionary; as a result, he speaks with the tongues of both Indians and Americans. Elephant Hill's interest and readability come partly from White's clear, simple style and partly from his understanding of just what the conflict means in the minds and hearts of the antagonists...
...missionaries' case is short and plain: they have every moral right, as well as a good legal one, to keep the child. But Author White sympathetically presents the Indian father's case. Alagarsami, the merchant, is not an independent man but an obligated member of a tradition-bound family. Eight years before, he was uninterested in the fruit of his night out with a servant girl; since then his wife has died childless, and Alagarsami must get himself an heir or see his birthright handed to a relative. In his own mind Alagarsami is battling for Mother India...
...between her American in-laws and the Indian claimant, sister Beth finds a romantic solution that makes everyone happy-so happy that Elephant Hill's Dickensian climax reads far too untrue to be good. Luckily, this is not the case with a preceding string of incidents that show Author White in his liveliest vein, e.g., an Indian amateur production of Samson and Delilah (featured as Delilah and Simpson, or The Strong Man of Whiskers Reduced by Reason of Passions). Another high point is the long-dreaded moment when the missionaries tell their adopted son the truth about his parentage...