ROGUE YATES (349 pp.)Tom Ronan Putnam ($3.95).
The sunburnt dash-dash stockman stood, And, in a dismal dash-dash mood,
Apostrophised his dash-dash cuddy; "The dash-dash nag's no dash-dash good . . ."
This, on the testimony of Robert Graves (in 'Lars Porsena' or The Future of Swearing and Improper Language), is an antipodean ballad in which is celebrated Australia's addiction to a certain adjective which goes as profanity in Britain, i.e., "bloody." The lines more or less tell the story of Rogue Yates, a relentlessly robust novel in a little-known genrethe Australian western. Author Ronan's sunburnt...