Books: Tainted Air

STORM—George R. Stewart—Random House ($2.50).

The hero of this exciting novel is not human. Its hero is a storm. This storm lived twelve days. It became as large, before it was done, as the U.S. Its snows and rains and brutal airs brought death directly to 14 people, indirectly to hundreds; destroyed billions of locust eggs and averted a plague; ended a drought, flooded a valley, threatened the city of Sacramento; endangered an airplane, stalled a crack train. Before it died it gave birth to another storm which, in its ripeness, did spectacular work in New York City. In its birth, its...