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In your review of John McGahern's The Dark [Feb. 18], you quote Samuel Johnson: "The Irish are a fair people. They never speak well of one another." They don't act well to one another either. The Dark has been banned from Ireland, and McGahern has lost his teaching post at a Dublin school. He has, it seems, committed two unforgivable sins: not only has he written a "dirty" book; he has also (God protect us from all harm) married outside the church.
MAURICE C. KINO
Dublin
I Remember Ezra
Sir:
You say of the Soviet decision to let Novelist Valery Tarsis go to England [Feb. 18]: "The official rationale was that since Tarsis' most recent underground novel, Ward 7, concerns his experience as a political prisoner in an insane asylum, he is a certified lunatic, hence not legally liable for his ravings." America, remember Ezra Pound!
LAWRENCE RUSSELL
Torremolinos, Spain
Pooh Who?
Sir:
Mr. Disney's Pooh presumption [Feb. 18] isn't worth a tiddley-pum.
PRESTON K. COVEY JR.
Pittsburgh
Sir:
A great salute to Mr. Disney, who has again brought to life one of the wonderful characters of all time.
(MRS.) CORA S. KILEY
Seal Beach, Calif.
Sir:
You better watch out, Mr. Disney. That is not Pooh.
JULIE CLARK
Melbourne, Australia
Good Gout
Sir:
Thank you for a story that did much to improve the gout sufferer's image [Feb. 18]. My husband's gout attack was met by others with a "ho, ho, ho" attitude and the usual remark, "That's the disease of the boozers and the high living." Now he ought to command a little respect with that painful big toe.
MRS. EWALD F. FISCHER
Hastings, Minn.
Degenerate Blintz
Sir:
I wonder if Letter Writer George W. Cooley, commenting on Barbra Streisand [Feb. 18], realizes that a crepe suzette is nothing more than a degenerate blintz.
MRS. J. ROTH
Cleveland
All Their Buttons
Sir:
Before noticing the presence of the pocket handkerchief and the absence of stripes on the sleeves, I would have sworn your example of avant-garde fashion [Feb. 25] was photographed in a Navy exchange. The Double-B look is certainly nothing new to us.
S. A. MOHSBERG III
Midshipman 2/c, U.S.N.
Annapolis, Md.
Sir:
Horrors! Is TIME trying to start a new look in fashion by leaving the last button on its double-breasted blazer unbuttoned? I heartily applaud the resurgence of the Double-B style, but I feel obliged to point out that no Double-B man who is worth his brass would leave a button unbuttoned.
ROBERTO C. BISSONE
New York City