THE MOON IS DOWN-John Steinbeck—Viking ($2).
"By ten-forty-five it was all over. The town was occupied, the defenders defeated, and the war finished." With these brisk, matter-of-fact words John Steinbeck begins his brisk, matter-of-fact account of the conquest of a nameless country, resembling Norway, by an invading force, resembling the Nazis. The Moon Is Down is Steinbeck's first important work of fiction since The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and the most resolute and dramatic piece of propaganda that has come out of World War II.
Like Of Mice and Men, this book could be made into a play simply by turning the descriptions into stage directions and filling out the dialogue. The writing is spare, bold, sometimes tensely humorous. What makes it great propaganda, over & above the professional skill with which it is written, is a certainty of viewpoint that does not admit the possibility of final military defeat because it does not admit the possibility of moral defeat. This is the viewpoint of victory.
Conquest. Victory was not the viewpoint of "the town" on the Sunday when the invaders arrived. The first mood was confusion. The postman and policeman had gone fishing in a boat owned by Mr. Corell, "the popular storekeeper." They were several miles at sea "when they saw the small, dark transport, loaded with soldiers, go quietly past them." Conscious of their civic duties, the postman and policeman turned back in time to be thrown into the local jail. "The local troops, all twelve of them, had been away. ..." Mr. Corell, the popular storekeeper, had donated a lunch, targets, cartridges and prizes for a shooting match six miles back in the hills in a pretty glade that he owned. The local troops, "big, loose-hung boys" (a hallmark of Steinbeck heroes), saw the planes and parachutes and ran back to town in time to be machine-gunned. That ended the first phase of the invasion.
Phase No. 2 took place at Mayor Orden's "five-room palace." By the fire sat Dr. Winter, the town historian and physician, "bearded and simple and benign." "What's the Mayor doing?" he asked the butler. "Dressing to receive the Colonel, sir. . . . Madame is trimming the hair out of his ears. It tickles. . . ."
The invaders were very polite. "Our military regulations, sir, prescribe that we search for weapons before the commanding officer enters a room. We mean no disrespect, sir." They searched Dr. Winter. Then the captain took out his little black book and observed that there were firearms in the house. "You are thorough," said Dr. Winter. "Yes, our local man has been working here for some time." Said Dr. Winter: "I don't suppose you would tell who that man is?" Said the captain: "His work is all done now. I don't suppose there would be any harm in telling. His name is Corell."