Books: Men & Insects

THE GRASSHOPPERS COME—David Garnett—Brewer, Warren & Putnam ($2.50).

In all David Garnett's books a Meaning lurks around the corner, but it will not bite you, it is muzzled, and it will not show its head unless you whistle for it. The Grasshoppers Come begins and ends with a description of the migratory habits of grasshoppers or locusts; the story is about airplanes, a long-distance flight.

Mrs. Beanlands, suddenly dowered by widowhood with money and a chance to gesture, thought it would be romantic to make a non-stop flight from England to Hong-Kong. Adventurer Wilmot Shap, eyeing her fortune, encouraged her, went along as...