Books: One Man, Two Pictures

THE REAL SILVESTRI (188 pp.)—Mario Soldati—Knopf ($2.95).

No man may really know what makes his best friend tick, but Italian Author Soldati, a movie director as well as a resourceful novelist, knows that a woman can best supply the answers, or at least plant them in the wondering mind. Who was the real Silvestri? The mild, sweet, physically unattractive fellow who wrote poetry, loved nature and lived meagerly off his ancestral estate—or an unsuccessful lover who was willing to use blackmail if necessary to bring his friend's wife to bed and marriage? There are several replies of sorts in this excellent short...