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The Cry of a Child. The dark night of the soul is a subject that comes naturally to Pierre Gascar. As a five-year prisoner of war, Gascar spent time in a brutal camp in the Polish Ukraine, where he tended graves like his hero Peter, and witnessed the killing of Jews. What Beasts and Men lacks, in the profoundest sense, is cosmic relief. In the despairing mind of Author Gascar, God cannot be forgiven for His sin of not existing. Gascar's notion of the universe as a giant rattrap leaves his characters with their necks perpetually broken, like the heroes of Dreiser and O'Neill, and with the same clenched fists of impotence raised against "dat ol' davil" Fate. This may not be the stuff of high tragedy, but it is rich in compassion for humanity's lot. He is one of those writers who, at their best, are touched with the defiance of Ivan Karamazov when he said that he rejected God and the universe if His order rested on the tortured cry of one innocent child.