Books: The Gang's All Here

THE WIND IS RISING—Jules Romains—Knopf ($3).

Last fall in Mexico City, his place of exile, Jules Romains wrote finis to Men of Good Will, his column-of-elephants novel of French life between 1908 and 1933. In addition to breaking the century's longdistance fiction record, Men of Good Will has taken almost 15 years to write and required three indexes for a cast of 400 characters, ranging from scrubwomen to Cabinet Ministers.

Many U.S. critics have hailed Author Remains' jumbo panorama with awe. Wrote Critic Clifton Fadiman who has been awed all along: "When the little...