The Moon's Dark Side

THE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF CONRAD AIKEN (566 pp.)--World--($6).

Reading through a big collection of short stories is like staying too long at a noisy party. Individual impressions blur; one woman waiting uncertainly with an unlit cigarette becomes all women with that mannerism, and a silly remark made once too often makes fools, unfairly, of all who repeat it. Similarly, the impression persists that at least one-quarter of these Conrad Aiken stories begin with characters waking up in the morning, and that most of his women have "the blackest and fiercest eyes I have ever seen." The repetitions may not be important--short stories are not meant to be read end to end--but they do suggest the limitations of Author Aiken's range of concern.

His prose is unvaryingly correct, well cut and sometimes a little oldfashioned.

He describes love affairs frequently, but writes less well of men and women than of men alone. Events are less important to him than inward torment, and consequently his prose is rich in soliloquies and barren of drama. But within these limitations his best stories are of a very high order, and they might seem the product of genius rather than of painstaking craftsmanship if one could not see the techniques of their construction in other, slightly less successful stories in the collection. The familiar Silent Snow, Secret Snow is the prize of the lot--a brilliant evocation of a young boy's thoughts as he drifts happily into madness. Reality fades as the boy's mind is diverted to the beauty of a perpetual, invisible snowfall, and this quiet, sifting snow that slowly obliterates the outside world is an instance of the rare, masterfully created literary symbol that never seems literary.

Gehenna is a short, impressive interior monologue that dallies with madness, and The Dark City is a skillfully done story of a happy father who, without abandoning his happiness, has a moment's clear vision of evil. Two other stories -- The Last Visit, concerned with adultery, and Mr. Arcularis, which chillingly deals with the no man's land between life and death -- are bravely and successfully ended in the O. Henry manner. These are the author's best, and they are a pleasure to read; few literary telescopes show the dark side of the moon as vividly.

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