The Last of the Conquerors
by .Farrar, Straus, $2.75.
This first novel by a twenty-year-old Negro veteran is certain to attract attention by reason of its highly charged theme. It’s the story of a Negro soldier in the Army of Occupation, who discovers in Germany what it feels like to be treated as a human being. In Berlin there is no color line. The women find him attractive, the more so because of the fact that he is colored. One of them falls desperately in love with him and is eager to marry him. Suddenly he is transferred to a post ruled by the Jim Crow spirit, and is cruelly victimized in a campaign to discredit Negro troops and force them out of ETO. As a social document the book achieves a powerful impact. From the literary standpoint it is strong in structure, weak in style — strong enough all round to suggest, that this exceedingly young writer may turn out to have real talent.