Books: Intellectual as Ape Man

WHO LOST AN AMERICAN? (337 pp.)—Nelson Algren—Macm/7/an ($5.95).

One way or another, American intellectuals are apt to complain about being lost. Nelson Algren is the lost American of his own story, but it cannot be that no one knows where he is; the uproar he creates is deafening.

The author of The Man with the Golden Arm seems determined to prove that it was written by a man with brass lungs and a tin ear. Who Lost an American? sounds like a bellowing recitative by a carnival barker who stops at nothing but to laugh...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!