Adam in the Orchid House

THE GARDEN TO THE SEA (219 pp.)--Philip Toynbee--Doubleday ($3).

Philip Toynbee is a youngish (37) British novelist* who believes that it takes many selves to make one man--a weaker self, a better self, a poetic self, and so on. There is nothing new about this point of view (the late Hilaire Belloc put it to use admirably in The Four Men), but there is ample novelty in Novelist Toynbee's strictly literal approach. His new book (his fifth) tells one man's love story from the four standpoints of his four personalities.

Hero Adam lives in a modern Garden of Eden with his wife Daisy. His innocent self, named Noel, is blissfully happy pottering in the garden, praising his Maker and exulting in the tall hedges that keep him and Daisy snug and private. Unfortunately. Adam also has a roving self named Tom--a fellow who finds life with Daisy as dull as being with Nanny in the nursery. So when the guns of World War II begin to bang, Tom takes over from Noel and bustles Adam into the R.A.F. Once the war is over. Adam believes, he will become Noel again and live happily ever after with his Daisy.

But life in the R.A.F. soon shows Airman Adam that he has yet another self-- a roistering, bawdy fellow named Charley, who gets a kick out of downing Messerschmitts and despises Adam's scrupulous self-analysis. Meanwhile, Daisy decides that any Tom who leaves her behind is going to pay for it as Noel. So when Adam comes back to the garden at war's end, all set to shed Tom and Charley (and take up again as Noel), he finds that a snake named Willy has crept through the hedge and picked Daisy. Noel is so stunned by the shock that he "dies." Tom runs off with Charley, and between them they keep poor Adam stinking drunk for weeks.

For a while it looks as if Charley is going to come out on top and devour Adam's better selves. But after a long mental struggle, Adam succeeds in besting Charley and making himself into a single, united individual who accepts, but controls, all his conflicting selves. This, Novelist Toynbee implies, is what is meant by the word maturity.

The final test of an experimental novel is: Did it have to be done in this unusual way, or could it have been done as well, or better, in a more ordinary manner? In essence, The Garden to the Sea is just another novel about young love--a hardy old perennial that thrives on simple, straightforward treatment. Author Toynbee should have discussed its culture with Noel before he let Willy sneak it into the orchid house.

* And son of Historian Arnold (A Study in History) Toynbee.

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