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PLATERO AND I, by Juan Ramón Jiménez. One of the best-loved books of the Spanish-speaking world, by the 1956 Nobel Prizewinner—138 prose poems about life and death in the author's home town in Spain. The poems are addressed to the narrator's companion, a donkey, with bittersweet and sensuous grace and delicacy.
JUSTINE, by Lawrence Durreli. Not to the taste of every literary palate but a special delight for those who can savor the sensuous, the sensual and the unsavory all at once. The heroine is a sex-surfeited Jewess in Alexandria who does not understand herself, in or out of bed. The reward for the reader is an unforgettable impression of both the oddly exciting and sordid sides of a Near Eastern city.
BY LOVE POSSESSED, by James Gould Cozzens. The best U.S. novel of the year, wrought of many kinds of love and their power to strengthen or warp character, make or break the lives of man or woman. Through its lawyer hero, the book also deals with something most U.S. novelists have forgot about—man's responsibility to man.
NOT BY BREAD ALONE, by Vladimir Dudintsev. No great shakes as a novel, but an important book, published in the West despite Moscow protests. With toughness and sarcasm, a Russian living in Russia in effect damns the Soviet regime, its bureaucracy and cynical disregard for individual aspiration.
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, by James Agee. A hymn to life, sung in the story of a man's death and the complex of feelings that course through the hearts and minds of his family. The novel's greatest strength is in its delicacy, the most unusual effects gained from a loving knowledge of the tragedy that underlies the usual.
LAST TALES, by Isak Dinesen. Gothic stories ranging in scene from Denmark to Italy, and turning on the tragic ironies that bow kings as well as poets and murderers. Superior fare for those who like a mixture of the sublime, the grotesque and the supernatural.
NONFICTION
THE ORGANIZATION MAN, by William H. Whyte Jr. A thoughtful and critical study of the growing numbers of Americans who tend to live, work, think and play within the framework of the large corporations that employ them. No off-the-cuff call for nonconformity for its own sake, the book (a surprise bestseller) spells out the need for genius and just plain individuality to speak in their own voices.
THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM, by Theodore Draper. The first volume of an important history by an ex-Communist who has both the objectivity and the dogged patience to tackle the subject. No joy for the casual reader, it offers a sober account of Communism's lust for power, and of the incredible nonsense involved in Communist theory.
THE MERCHANT OF PRATO, by Iris Origo. A biography of a 14th century Tuscan merchant reconstructed from bales of letters and ledgers. What could have become a dreary recital is in fact a shrewd look at an early capitalist, a fine piece of social history and a graceful piece of writing.