THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA

by Sydney A. Clark, '12, Prentice Hall, 1941,P. 344. $3.00.

IN HAPPIER TIMES, I have used Sydney Clark's Norway on Fifty Dollars, Sweden on FiftyDollars, etc., and found them informal, sensitive and selective guide books. His newest, The West Coast of South America, a more pretentious volume, carries on the good tradition in a sprightly introduction to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile—collectively and individually. Of interest to the armchair traveler as well as the prospective visitor to South America, the book is divided into three sections; the first, "The Foreground of the Picture" a sensible introduction containing in dispensible geographical, psychological, passage, linguistic, and currency exchange hints; the second, "The Background of the Picture," a concise historical description of the Inca, Colonial, and republican culture of the West Coast; and the third, "Yourself in the Picture," a realistic guide to the main cities, tourist attractions, and excursions in the form of a running story larded with adult personal reactions and practical tips.

Clark is a great admirer of the übiquitous llama, philosophical inhabitant of the high plateau region of Peru and Bolivia. He chuckles at market women and their tricks; he steeps himself in old Spain left in out of the way corners. He muses on Incaic ruins, but best of all he likes people, be they captains of Latin industry or village indios. "Santiago evenings spent in the homes of representative citizens are the most rewarding forms of 'night life' for any traveler."

This guide is not a Baedecker; that is in its favor. An experienced traveler, having covered professionally a large portion of the globe, Clark is able to distill the best out of a country and suggest to the usually all-too-hurried tourist what he will find rewarding. As a guide book, confining itself mainly to description, there is naturally little attempt at critical analysis of Spanish-American civilization; that job has been left to others.