Voltaire, Alger & Hitler

A COOL MILLION--Nathanael West-- Covici, Friede ($2).

Publishers Covici. Friede admit that A Cool Million is a rich mixture of Voltaire's Candide, Horatio Alger's Sink or Swim, Adolf Hitler's My Battle. Those U. S. readers who recall Author West's little-noticed satire, Miss Lonelyhearts* will expect something pretty funny as the upshot of this medley and they will not be disappointed. A Cool Million, of the Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin is really a U. S.-imitation Candide. Though Author West's satire lacks the bite of Voltaire's, it is sharp enough to take the hide off more than one victim.

Lemuel Pitkin, whose story begins in typical Alger surroundings, with a widowed mother, a mortgaged New England house and a villainous lawyer, quickly passes on to breezier events. Encouraged by his friend, "Shagpoke" Whipple, a smalltown banker, to seek his fortune in the big city, Lemuel sets out for Manhattan, falls victim to a confidence man. and is jailed by mistake. Here his dismantling begins: all his teeth are pulled out by order of the kindly warden. Lemuel is surprised to meet his friend Shagpoke in prison. To Lem's commiseration the bankster replies: "I am an American businessman, and this place is just an incident in my career."

Finally in Manhattan, Lemuel does the Algerian thing by stopping a runaway horse in Central Park and saving a banker's lovely daughter. But all he gets out of that is the loss of an eye. He goes to jail again, is held prisoner in a bawdy house, goes West to dig gold, loses his leg in a bear trap, is attacked by Indians led by a Harvard-educated chief. Convincingly scalped, he makes a precarious living in a sideshow, acts as a clown in vaudeville, finally bows to a Communist-assassin's bullet, and becomes in death the martyred hero of the fascist "Leather Shirts." a nationwide organization fostered by Lemuel's canny friend. Shagpoke. Pitkin's Birthday is made a national holiday, and Shagpoke's leather-shirted, coonskin-hatted legions. 100,000 strong, parade in his honor. Lemuel Pitkin, dismantled bodily, is a spiritual success.

*Filmed as Advice to the Lovelorn (TIME, Dec. 25).

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