Books: Island of the Year

TALE OF BALI—Vicki Baum—Double-day, Doran ($2.75).

Thanks to the tradition founded by Gauguin, Tahiti was for several generations the most famed South Sea island. Now it is Bali. Six weeks ago, Miguel Covarrubias' handsome travel book, Island of Bali (TIME, Nov. 22), did Bali up brown; last week Vicki Baum's latest novel added a few trimmings.

But Vicki Baum insists that she has jumped on no Bali band wagon. As long ago as 1916, her foreword says, photographs of the island so fascinated her that they became her favorite smelling salts against "war, revolution,...