Books: Insane

WAY OF SACRIFICE—Fritz von Unruh—Knopf ($2.50). Son of a German general, Fritz von Unruh was commissioned in 1916 to write something that would improve regimental morale. When he submitted the manuscript of the present volume the General Staff declared him insane. Way of Sacrifice is a mad medley of trench mud, footsore soldiers' nightmares, barbwire hallucinations, macabre fears, and philosophic outbursts, synthesized into despair over the futility of it all. The particular futility of unrelieved "storm regiments" below Verdun was evident to officers and men alike. The callous commandant: "Four hundred thousand gone? I reckoned it at that." But the company...