ustxtxb_obs_1973_09_21_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

women, blacks, Indians, Chinese, radicals and Middle Americans to see everything through lenses of their minority affiliations, while only boring in conversation, is deadly in a novel. Primarily because a novelist is required to be an individual first of all, and it is what distinguishes him, not what aligns him with a group, which gives his work its value. Thus the reduced importance of homosexuality per se in The Fourth Angel is one of its most attractive characteristics. There are many other things about this impressive novel which bear mentioning. There are the sharp telling sentences which show Rechy’s skill: “Off Mesa now. Up. Along new elaborate houses invading the pristine desert. Houses a studied distance from each other in nervous luxury.” There is the striking technical skill shown in pacing and dramatic structure: . . . Here and there, trees on this truncated hill overlooking the rest of the park create alcoves, grottos. It’s four o’clock. Shadows engraved by the bright stare of the sun provide pools for lovers. But Cob and Shell lie in a clearing. “You see him yet?” Shell demands impatiently. “Nocool it.” Cob’s legs curl about her more intimately. Half a page on you learn that what they are doing is trapping a voyeur. There are the drug experiences \(surely the world’s most ‘amazingly, hold up well. On the other hand, at occasional points Rechy settles for simply describing instead of recreating a scene. But the major observation which can be 16 The Texas Observer made about Rechy’s new novel is the remarkable gains made possible by the short dry and direct forms he has imposed on himself. A novel is in one sense a performance, and the performance is judged on how successfully a writer’s work accomplishes its goals against the severity of its restrictions. Like a runner without a Friends and relatives of war resisters now residing in Canada have a 15-day chance to pass along a little good news. A one-time opportunity for thousands of young , Americans to regularize their Canadian immigration status commenced August 1, to continue 60 days. The Canadian Parliament has passed a bill allowing any person living in Canada who arrived by November 30, 1972, to apply within the 60 days for landed-immigrant status. An exile in Canada who is not a landed immigrant is in constant danger of deportatioh, cannot legally hold a job, cannot benefit from government social services, and can never apply for Canadian citizenship. During the years of the Indochina war, 20,000 draft-age American men have been admitted to Canada as landed immigrants. An estimated ’40 to 50 thousand draft refusers and deserters have gone into exile during that period, most of them presumably to Canada. Since many of these men are living “underground,” it is essential that friends and relatives do all they can to relay the information to them. There are Canadian Aid Centers for U.S. Exiles in Toronto, Ontario; Winnepeg, Manitoba; Montreal, Quebec; Vancouver, British Columbia; Calgary, Alberta; and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Others have been planned and may already be in operation at Edmonton and Thunder Bay and in Saskatchewan and the Maritimes. Roberta Clay, 604 W. Clinton, Dublin, Tex. 76446. LBJ slighted I received your communication of August 1, 1973. I must decline your offer. I am 78 years old and have been a liberal since I first voted in 1916, and I have attended most of the Democratic Conventions for the last 35 years. I always worked for liberal causes, and have had my head blooded many times, but never bowed. I was much disturbed at your utter lack of perception in evaluating a great Statesman, LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON whose great courage in sponsoring the first civil rights legislation in 1957. He laid his political career on the line, and when he specific distance, a writer with no restrictions is simply indulgent, not to mention boring. Rechy has, in the case of The Fourth Angel, set himself a’ difficult task, but he seems more liberated than constrained by the restrictions he has placed on his work and the control he forces himself to exercise. IDialogue was President he fathered all the other humanitarian legislation that was passed. LYNDON BAINES JOHNSONN DESERVED better treatment from a supposed liberal publication. Poor Ronnie’s tongue in cheek reporting of the President’s funeral was utterly disgusting. Ronnie should go back to school and take some courses in current history. I suppose that it was appreciated by some neo-liberals but those of us who have borne the burdens of fighting the machine through the years think a man should be measured by what he accomplished, and L. B. J. left his own mark of greatness on the pages of our history. I will close with a further word to send Ronnie to school. Louis W. Oliver, 1804 Avenue H, Galveston, Texas 77550. Contact wanted I would appreciate it very much if you would print this letter in your magazine. At the present I am a prisoner at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, Ohio. I just received two more years from the parole board after doing 44 months. With my present lack of contact with the free world I find these present additional two years very depressing. So I appeal to you, the readers of this magazine, for aid in regaining contact with the living. I would like to correspond with anyone any age, sex or race. I will answer all mail. Address all cards and letters to: Lincoln Heard 134-115, Box 787, Lucasville, Ohio 45648. The [Nixon] administration failed to spend $50 million for cancer that was available in the 1973 fiscal year. And although the National Heart Institute received $18 million more in the 1974 budget, it was directed to start entirely new programs in lung diseases that will eat up the entire increase without allowing it to focus more resources on heart disease the nation’s biggest killer. Stuart Auerbach, The Washington Post. Good news