Books: Madame Control

FACING TWO WAYS—Baroness Shidzué Ishimoto—Parrar & Rinehart ($3.50).

When Shidzué Ishimoto was born in Tokyo at the turn of the century, the life of a woman of the samurai class was confined to a rigid pattern, from which deviation was instantly punished. She could expect to lead a sheltered life, become accomplished in penmanship, drawing, ethics, the three forms of bowing, the elaborate and agonizing rules for entertaining at dinner, the equally elaborate rules for serving tea, the subtle and difficult art of arranging flowers in vases. She could expect her parents to...