Books: The Climate of War

IVY GRIPPED THE STEPS AND OTHER STORIES (233 pp.)—Elizabeth Bowen—Knopf ($2.50).

Any book by Anglo-Irish Novelist Elizabeth Bowen (The House in Paris, The Death of the Heart) is an event, even if a large section of the U.S. has yet to realize it. This new collection of short stories may bring a few more readers to appreciate her peculiar talent. She is one of the most knowing and subtle of modern writers, working usually in muted tones, off-colors, remotely gross or secret moods. At her best she is delicate, witty, adroit, a genuine craftsman in the sense that Virginia Woolf was...

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