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308 LETTERS IN CANADA 1996 assessment of Brecht's attitude towards Jews deflects recent attacks on Brecht for supposedly having harboured anti-Semitic feelings. In an interesting comment on Fuegi's bias against Brecht,S. Mews detects a more sympathetic treatment of Brecht in Elaine Feinstein's 1992 novel Loving Brecht, which in tum was partly based on Fuegi's biography. The highlights of the two other main sections are V. Stegmarm's elucidating study of Busoni as a precursor of both Brecht and Weilt J. Hermand's discovery of concepts common to such opposite figures as Brecht and Felsenstein, H. Knust's discussion of Brecht's story 'If Sharks Were People' as an example of Brecht's own characteristic technique of adaptation, and F.N. Mermerneier's comparison of Brecht's varied cultural and political activities around 1930 to the projects and ideas of the young intellectuals of the 'Friihromantik' around 1800. The volume is a true treasure trove for anyone interested in Brecht in particular and in the relationship of the arts and the contemporary world in general. With M. Van Dijk as the new managing editor, the Yearbook was produced at the University of Waterloo. (HELFRIED w. SELIGER) Brian Diemert. Graham Greene's Thrillers and the 19305 McGill-Queen's University Press. x, 238. $44.95 cloth, $19.95 paper In this carefully argued book BrianDiemert Wldertakes to reassess Greene's early novels in relation to the historical situation of the 19305. His thesis, following the author's own later accounts, is that Greene adapted the novels of adventure he had admired in boyhood to create a vehicle for critiques of established authority which, being popular in form, might attract and move a wide audience. Diemert adds depth and conviction to the author's story by analysing the novels in the light of recent literary theory, especially the work of Barthes and Todorov, to show how Greene first rejected such 'literary' models as late Conrad, and then reworked the popular thriller, hitting his stride with A Gun for Sale in 1936. Focusing on the reading and interpretation of narratives, Diemert reveals both the development and the coherence of Greene's writing in this period, and usefully empties Greene's own (later abandoned) distinction between 'novels' and 'entertainments' of most of its significance. . In a familiar tale, Sherlock Holmes rejects the story of the Red-Headed League, and replaces it with a story of attempted bank-robbery, which he confirms by capturing the robbers in the act. Treating the thriller as a subspecies ofthe detective story, DiemertcharacterizesGreene's protagonists as 'investigators' whose function is to expose the falsehood of the 'stories' current in English society, such as that English justice is impartial and is served by an incorruptible and infallible police force. Their adventures (often their misadventures) move readers to perceive the reality of HUMANITIES 309 their own lives more clearly, serving simultaneously as the confirmation of this new 'story' of how things are. This approach produces excellent readings of individual works, particularly 'Murder for the Wrong Reason' (a short story of 1929), Brighton Rock, and The Ministry ofFear (the endpoint of Diemert's study). It has the defects ofits qualities, however. Writers of the 1930S are represented chiefly by Auden, Isherwood, and George Orwell. Other novelists who shared Greene's social and political unease, but devised different narrative methods, like Henry Green, are absent. The thriller most often mentioned is Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps of 1915; Greene's rivals for the thriller market in the 19305 are barely mentioned (Sapper, Dornford Yates, Eric Ambler not at all). Greene's novels are thus largely isolated from the literary and commercial context in which they appeared. Michael Irmes is named twice (misspelled) in the text, but doesn't-make the index, which is a pity, because he not only wrote both detective stories and thrillers, but also most unusually allowed his detective to appear in a thriller, in The Secret Vanguard (1940), probably the unnamed bookwhich inspired Greene to write The Ministry ofFear. Diemert's summary of 19308 literary politics is simplified sometimes to the point of distortion, as in his presentation of F.R. Leavis,who...

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