Books: Hero, Post-War Model

THE HERO—Alfred Neumann—Knopf ($2.50). You frequently hear post-War literature criticized for being ugly, brutal, bereft of nobility. Many a novel of contemporary Germany can be tarred with this stick. But Herr Neumann's psychological epic, his portrait of a modern hero, while it is compact of journalistic realism, is neither ugly, brutal, nor ignoble. Neumann has translated old virtues into modern terms, but their values remain.

Neumann's hero is a political assassin. Hoff, former German officer, since the Revolution a professional dancer in a Berlin cabaret, is leader of an extreme group in...