Collier, John - New Republic (review date 9 December 1972)

New Republic (review date 9 December 1972)

SOURCE: “In Brief.” New Republic 167, no. 22 (9 December 1972): 33-34.

[In the following review, the critic examines the works included in The John Collier Reader, concluding that much of Collier's canon is charming but light reading.]

We may still believe in God—our money and our pledge of allegiance say we do—but few nowadays believe in Satan. True, we can muster up a pharisaical contempt for antisocial behavior; we can generate a proper Republican shudder at breaches of law'n'order; and of course any sexual naughtiness still provides a spasm of titillation or moral indignation (which T. S. Eliot said is “the favorite emotion of the middle class”). But despite the current bumper crop of public and private evil, no one could make even an election issue of it, recently.

This is regrettable—not merely for moral or political reasons, but for esthetic ones. “The...

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