THE AMERICAN PRINCESS.

By EdwardKuhn Jr. '46. New York: Simon andSchuster, 1971. 408 pp. $7.95.

The American Princess is a good story, a pleasant entertainment for an evening, but an easily forgettable experience. It has all the qualities guaranteed to capture and hold attention: an unusual marriage, an exotic setting, and contemporary political implications. Mr. Kuhn's narrative technique is skilful as he moves from point of view to point of view and backwards and forwards in time. I read quickly and with sustained interest the story of why and how a young woman from Cincinnati met and married the prince of a small Himalayan kingdom and the personal and political difficulties they encountered.

Now for the "but." Mr. Kuhn never convinced me that his characters are real or the action true. I did not feel with the people in their joys or tribulations but observed them from without as they acted and re-acted in plausible but contrived situations. I was neither drawn into Mr. Kuhn's world nor stimulated into thinking in new ways about my own.

In short, The American Princess is a good story but no more than that. Perhaps this is all Mr. Kuhn has attempted and that we can expect in his first novel. His second will be the real test of his power to create and communicate "felt life."

A Greek scholar and Professor of English atWellesley College, Miss Lever is author of The Art of Greek Comedy, The Novel and the Reader, and The Perfect Teacher.