THE LOST WEEKEND − Charles Jackson −Farrar & Rinehart ($2.50).
Webster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin. . . .
− T. S. Eliot.
American novelists of the 20th Century have been much possessed by damnation.
Though Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck et al. never use the old-fashioned language of theology, the world they describe is a world where the people are predestined to the damnation of death, defeat, madness or senility. In The Lost Weekend, an unevenly brilliant first novel, the sense of damnation is strong. But even stronger is the sense of suspense−will he escape? why can't he escape?...
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